Scarlet Masquerade
by mewmaster93
Summary: Not long after the events of Hopeless Masquerade, the mischievous Celestial Tenshi descends onto Gensokyo once more, looking for a way to once again cure her boredom. Her search leads her to Hata no Kokoro, and Tenshi decides to use her powers to cause some trouble amongst the main Touhou cast. Will Tenshi be stopped? And just why does she feel unnaturally drawn to Kokoro? Find out
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: A Celestial's Descent**

_Above the Earth exists a collection of separated realms that is said to house the purest of departed souls. These realms go by many names, and some of them are said to be connected to other worlds. One such realm is known as Bhavaagra that houses mainly Celestials, former humans that either gained immortality and ascended to this holy land or achieved perfect Nirvana and ascended in spiritual form. However, Celestials are not the only holy creatures to touch upon the sacred lands of Bhavaagra. Angels, the holy denizens that take residence behind the fabled pearly gates, are prevalent in this land. They interact with the Celestials peacefully, caring not about their methods of entering the holy lands so long as they did not do so with wicked intentions._

_However, there is one particular Celestial that the Angels show a hint of disdain towards. She is known mainly as a delinquent amongst all of Bhavaagra simply because she was brought to this holy land by her parents instead of through her own effort, and thus her lack of enlightenment has led to her causing trouble across Bhavaagra in an attempt to cure her boredom. The Celestial's never satiated her boredom though, their minds too sharp-witted to fall for the juvenile tricks of this young, misguided girl. The girl's actions did sometimes bring disgrace to the Hinawani clan through which she was born, but in the end the one known as Tenshi Hinawani cared little about such matters simply because she didn't known any better._

_Eventually growing tired of trying and failing to prank the other Celestials, Tenshi became interested in the fantasy realm of Gensokyo, which Bhavaagra floated high above. With the use of her Keystones and the legendary shape-shifting sword Hisou no Tsurugi, Tenshi hoped to create an incident in Gensokyo that would attract many to try and resolve the problems she created and in turn ease her troublesome boredom. However, she didn't realize the gravity of her own plans, and though the first act of her incident was rather harmless the final one threatened to destroy Gensokyo in a gigantic earthquake if it wasn't foiled. Eventually the incident was resolved with Tenshi losing most of her boredom after fighting most of Gensokyo's strongest…Though the mischievous Celestial had the misfortune of gaining the jolly and childish oni Suika Ibuki as a guest in the process. It has now been a few years since that "Scarlet Weather Rhapsody"…_

The land of Bhavaagra contains a plentiful bounty of cherry blossom-like flowers on the ground and trees filled with luscious peaches. The tips of the famed Youkai Mountains of Gensokyo poke up through the ground in a line at the edge of this holy land, the view of the fantasy lands shrouded by the uppermost layer of clouds. There is no sky so to speak, for this place lies on the precipice between the ground and the atmosphere into the depths of space. But despite the position, the sun usually beats down upon Bhavaagra. As of this very moment, the childish Celestial Tenshi was standing beneath the peach trees, using the Hisou no Tsurugi, which had taken the form of a spiked prodding device, to pluck a fruit from the closest branch so she could eat it.

As usual, Tenshi was wearing her white buttoned-up blouse with a red bow at its collar while a blue dress with a light-blue bow wrapped at her back is worn below it, an apron with similar colors to the blouse that also has a rainbow-patterned shard link around the edges draped in front of the dress. She also had on her brown lace-up boots and a black hat decorated with peaches, but instead of keeping her blue hair long she had decided on this day to tie it up into a braided ponytail. After pulling the peach from the tree she takes it off of the tip of the Hisou no Tsurugi and looks at her face's reflection in the shiny surface of this succulent fruit, her dull dark red eyes signifying just how bored the Celestial currently is as she makes her sword vanish in a wavy pattern and stuffs the front of the peach into her mouth, chomping down on the juicy delicacy and narrowly avoiding the pit with her front teeth as she begins to chew.

She put too much food in her mouth though, for each bite she takes releases a bit of peach through her lips. Her cheeks puff out for the initial bites as she walks out of the sacred garden with a bored look in her eyes, and with the fruit muffling her voice she says "Breh, it iff so boring around herf these dayfs…" Gulping down the first half of the peach, Tenshi moves on to the second part, tossing the pit away behind her without a care as she chews the peach thoroughly "How long hafs it been since I caused troubfle down in Gensokfyo?" Swallowing the remainder of the peach, Tenshi starts to become reminiscent, closing her eyelids and thinking back to the past when she created an incident. Most of her memories deal with her battles though, especially the times she chuckled in glee as she was getting beaten up by various Youkai and humans who she happened to anger.

Opening her eyelids with a look of surprise on her face, Tenshi blinks twice and says "Huh…Why am I recalling all of that? Did I enjoy all that pain? Geez, hope nobody ever finds out about that…Wouldn't want to be labeled a masochist after all." "What is this about being labeled a masochist?" A voice filled with laid-back yet partially mischievous intrigue is heard coming from behind the Celestial, who freezes in place for a moment before slowly creaking around and seeing her messenger and sometimes guardian Iku Nagae descending from the atmosphere. The lady was garbed in a fancy white and red shirt with a long black skirt wrapped around her thinly waist. On her short violent blue hair is a black dancer's hat with a red bow that has two long ribbons dangling around in the air before she lands on the ground. Entwined along her arms and blouse is a white and red shawl that occasionally glows scarlet along with the red on her shirt.

Though she was usually a peaceful messenger, Iku gave a stern look only towards the spoiled Celestial Tenshi, mostly because of the latter's actions a few years ago. Tenshi, realizing that Iku was not the person she was worried about appearing, lets out a light sigh and chuckles, saying nonchalantly to the messenger of the Dragon Palace "Oh, its only you Iku. For a second, I thought you were that annoying Oni." Iku smiles, unamused by Tenshi's weak attempt to change the subject away from her inquiry. But before she presses the matter, she looks down at the child and says to her "Alas, the Oni has returned to the surface world for the time being. She will be back though, so in the meantime…Why were you talking about masochism?"

The Celestial turns around and shrugs her shoulders, responding to Iku with "I was just thinking about the incident I caused before and how fun it was. I kind of miss that feeling of joy, so I was considering going back down to Gensokyo and causing a little mischief to see if I can cure my boredom." While Iku had no problem with Tenshi's rather blunt honesty, she didn't like the idea of another incident being caused by her, mainly because she was the one who got beaten up the most due to a large amount of misunderstandings from the residents. With her right hand extended and an uneasy grin on her face, Iku gently pleads to Tenshi "Now now, I don't think we need to go and cause any trouble down below after what happened last time."

Tenshi rolled her eyes, turning back around towards Iku while kicking one foot out mid-spin as she says with arms folded behind her head "Oh come on Iku! You have to agree that it was a lot of fun the last time around. Heck, from that brief trip of ours a week or so ago I could tell that there were a lot of new faces wandering around Gensokyo, so I can have even more people involved in whatever incident I cause!" "…Or I could save the people a lot of grief by telling them of your presence ahead of time." Iku says, bluntly reminding the bratty Celestial about her involvement in her defeat the last time around. However, with a sly smile on her face along with her Cheshire-like glare Tenshi counters Iku's threat with "Like you have it in you to take initiative against me."

Tilting her head slightly while hiding a cold glare behind her shut eyelids, Iku rebuts Tenshi's noting of her glaring personality flaw with "No, but it would be such a shame if you left and the Oni 'accidentally' found out about your plans to start another incident." With those few words, Tenshi's haughtiness crumbles apart as she recalls the first time she met that drunk demon bitch Suika Ibuki, and how without barely any effort the Oni dominated her and forcibly took a part of Heaven for herself. For Tenshi, Suika Ibuki was her greatest fear made reality, and even worse was the fact that the oni was more often than not her next door neighbor. Realizing that there was nothing stopping Iku from telling Suika whenever the oni returns, Tenshi waves her hands in front of her chest and begs to her "Ok ok ok! What if I promise not to cause any wanton destruction or mess with the weather? Can't I be allowed to go down and pull a simple, harmless prank?"

Iku weighs heavily on Tenshi's pleas. After all, would there truly be any harm in allowing the Celestial to perform a few simple pranks down in Gensokyo? If Tenshi's boredom was cured by allowing her a little freedom, then that would solve a lot of Iku's own headaches in Bhavaagra…About 99.9% of them in fact. So for her sake and everyone else's in Bhavaagra, Iku said the words that acted as the key to Tenshi's cage "Alright Tenshi, I won't say anything to anyone…But only if you stick to your word and perform only meager, harmless pranks…I will know if you do anything else." Giving a stern final warning to the Celestial, Iku turns around and floats back up towards the atmosphere of Bhavaagra, leaving behind a joyous Tenshi who quickly rips out a holy rock encircled with shimenawa ropes known as a keystone from the ground, causing a slight tremor through the holy grounds around her as she leaps on top of the sleek surface and flies off towards the clouds hovering around the Youkai Mountain tops.

Piercing a hole right into the layer of clouds, Tenshi arrives in the mythical land of Gensokyo, which is currently experiencing a nice warm breeze and fresh sunlight. It was starting to become summer time, which means the temperatures were going to rise and everything was going to become even livelier. Of course, the spoiled Tenshi doesn't care too much about the simplistic beauty of nature around her. After all, if the luscious lands of Bhavaagra didn't affect her, what could sparkling waterfalls and lily pad paved ponds do to catch her interests? With arms folded in front of her chest as she rode against the powerful breezes hovering above the Youkai Mountains, Tenshi looked around and commented on the scenery with a great deal of superiority in her voice "These lands are rather drab…Were it not for its interesting people, I would say Gensokyo is even more boring than Bhavaagra…"

With that, Tenshi lifts her head up away from the ground and suddenly feels a mighty gust blow right past as her as a speedy figure flies across the air as a black and white streak. As she plants her hand on top of her hat to keep it on, the Celestial looks at the blur and quickly realizes just who went by her. It was Aya Shameimaru, Gensokyo's resident news reporter and famed tengu of the Youkai Mountains. Tenshi remembers that Aya once interviewed her after the incident she caused, and maybe now Tenshi could use her to find out about the recent events transpiring in Gensokyo so she can find out who to prank. The problem though is catching the speedy tengu…Which Tenshi grins at the thought of, thinking to herself as she commands her keystone to fly at rocket speeds "Perhaps this will be fun after all…"

The Celestial flies across the air, her hand placed tightly on top of her signature hat as her ponytail swerves around behind her because of her velocity. In a few seconds Tenshi catches up to the tengu reporter, meaning that Aya wasn't running at full speed today. The red-eyed Tengu has semi-long black hair, part of it draped over her pointed ears. She wears a thin white blouse, black short skirt along with a red tokin on her head. On her back are black crow wings, and on her legs are black stockings and stilted wood red shoes. The last item of note on Aya is the leather bag wrapped underneath her left arm, which carefully carries all of the newspapers she plans to spread to the general populace.

However, instead of continuing to perform her duties she tilts her head upon feeling someone riding beside her and catches a glimpse of the keystone riding Tenshi, her eyes widening momentarily in surprise before she immediately stops in place and straightens her body gracefully, the Celestial ending her flight a few seconds later and backing up to end up directly in front of the tengu, who extends her arms out beside her hips and balances herself in the air with a few steady flaps of her wings…Which admittedly is all for show considering she doesn't need them to fly. After recognizing the Celestial, Aya says in a gleeful tone of intrigue "Hey, you're that Celestial, Tenshi Hinanai!" Tenshi, with a casual air about her, says as she sits down on top of her keystone with dress and legs draped in front of it "Actually, its Hinawani." She didn't want to be too rude to the tengu, especially since she needed a newspaper in order to start with her pranks.

"Ah, my mistake." Aya apologizes. "So what do you want? I'm on a bit of a tight schedule today." The tengu then points out the urgency of her trip, though the smile on her face means that she doesn't seem too concerned about being late. Tenshi, reaching into a pocket on the side of her dress, pulls out a large silver yen piece, placing it above her folded right pointer finger and in front of her thumbnail before saying to the tengu with a wink of her right eyelid "Give me one of your newspapers, I'm interested to see what's going on lately." With a flick of the thumb the yen piece flies over to Aya, who catches it in her left hand upon recognizing the high monetary value of it while gliding her right hand into her bag to pull out a paper that she quickly tosses over to the Celestial. Out of all the people in Gensokyo who were involved in the Scarlet Weather incident, Ayay had the least reason to dislike Tenshi, so she served her the newspaper with a constant smile on her face.

Once the Celestial grabbed it with her right hand, she was quickly taken off-guard by a brief flash of light, her eyelids blinking to recover from it as she looks up and sees Aya floating in place with one of her fingers rising up from the top of her signature camera with a merry grin on her face. The Celestial quickly proclaims in disbelief "Hey! What's the big idea tengu?!" Waving her camera around as a brimming smirk crosses her face, Aya says to Tenshi "Just picking up a picture for my next news article 'Infamous Celestial Tenshi Hinawani Reads a Commoner's Newspaper'! But anyways, I got to ride, so thanks for the cash!" After putting her camera and yen piece away deep inside of her bag, Aya turns ninety degrees to the left and kicks against to air to rocket away, the sudden breeze she creates ruffling Tenshi's hairs as the Celestial stares her way with a dumbfounded look in her eyes.

"Geez…What a crazy tengu…" Tenshi quietly says, turning her attention towards the paper she acquired a moment later and opening it up to see what its contents hold. "Hmmm….Bunbunmaru Newspaper special report…Oh? Wonder what's so special about this article…" Tenshi's grin widens like that of a mischievous cat, and with great intrigue brimming in her eyes she continues to read the article deeper. _"The recent religion duels between the propagators of the Shinto, Buddhist, and Taoist factions have been settled thanks to the menreiki youkai Hata no Kokoro, but don't despair youkai and humans, there is still a chance for you to hear the grand story behind this incident! For the next week in the Human Village, a Kagura will be performed by the incident solver herself that will be sure to leave you emotional…And not because she will be making you feel that way about the spectacle with her powers! As someone who has gotten an advanced showing of 'Hopeless Masquerade', I must say that-"_

Tenshi quickly pauses, caring little about Aya's opinion on the Kagura as she goes back a sentence and rereads it, repeating some key words in her head twice over "Emotional…Her powers…" As her eyes widen, so too does her smile, which becomes as broad as her face and as tall as the area between the lobes on her ears and her chin. After a grand series of wicked thoughts brew inside the Celestial's head, she says to herself "So…This Hata non Kokoro person can manipulate other people's emotions, eh? Looks like I've got myself a great way to prank people. All I have to do is head down to the Human Village and it will be easy to get her to assist me ." With the info she needs now stored in her mind, Tenshi stands on top of her keystone and tosses the newspaper away without a care. She then flies off towards the direction of the Human Village, remembering its location from the last time she was in Gensokyo.

It doesn't take very long considering the speed of her keystone, but when she arrives at the village she realizes something rather important "Oh wait…I don't know what this Kokoro person looks like." The look of realization on her sweating face is one for the picture album, but after her eyebrows twitch a few times Tenshi shakes off her concerns and proclaims to herself while pounding her right fist against her flat chest "That's alright, I'll just look for a girl with a young appearance, colorful hair, and a weird choice in clothing! That's how you identify all of the important people in Gensokyo after all!" Of course, the flaw in Tenshi's logic is that there are about 10 or so people that go to the Human Village that fit her specifications, meaning that it would be hard to peg down Kokoro specifically.

The Celestial spends about an hour floating out of view above the Human Village until she starts getting incredibly bored trying to find the Youkai she wants and with a frustrated gritted of her teeth she thinks to herself "You know what…I'm just going to wait for that 'Hopeless Masquerade' dance of hers…It'll be easy to identify her if she's the only one involved in it." Thus Tenshi sits on her keystone, looking at the center of town where a stage appears to be and continues to keep herself out of sight as a crowd of humans begins to gather in front of the stage, which as the Celestial notes is rather plain in design. "Hmm…This Kokoro person doesn't appear to be one to show off. Wonder what they will look like…" Tenshi anticipated the appearance of the menreiki youkai immensely, so much in fact that she nearly leaned herself off of her keystone as she stared down at the stage as the crowd silenced themselves and prepared for the entrance of the grand performer herself.

Without warning, the entirety of the Human Village is covered in a dark blue shroud, the colors fading from all but the humans and Youkai who came to watch as a thin yet tall wisp of aquamarine fire spawns above the center of the stage. Tenshi's eyebrows pop up in surprise, and she thinks to herself "Interesting…Very, very interesting…" From the wisp of fire emerges a figure surrounded by a ring of eight different masks, all of them dispersing along with the wisp as the being spreads her arms out and opens her eyelids. Three masks then return, floating around her with a pale blue glow around them. The Celestial is shocked to see that this Youkai is even younger looking than she is, but doesn't have any doubts in her mind that she has found Hata no Kokoro.

Kokoro's appearance shares a few similarities to Tenshi's own. Her hair is long like the Celestial's normally is but colored pink to match her empty, pupil less eyes. Kokoro wears a blouse, but hers is colored blue and has a plaid pattern to it. On her shirt are buttons of various shapes and colors ranging from the red star on the top to the purple X on the bottom. The similarities end there though, for below the blouse is a puffy, pumpkin shaped pink skirt whose bottom lip extends beyond her kneecaps. On the skirt are multiple faces that alternate between showing sadness and joy, and her feet are covered by silk white socks that have little tiny bow ribbons on top of them. The one particular thing that caught Tenshi's attention though was that Kokoro barely showed any emotion on her face, and that she had Ko-omote mask of joy floating adjacent to her face.

"Huh…So for one who can control other people's emotions, she chooses to use masks to express her own emotions." The Celestial's observation was pretty easy to catch on to, but Tenshi was proud of herself to have done it anyways. Sitting back observantly on the keystone, Tenshi watches the dance of 'Hopeless Masquerade' unfold on stage as the environment returns back to normal and Kokoro bows towards the audience. The Youkai depicts the events of the latest incident through her masks, taking out fans and dancing gracefully around each one that is summoned forth beautifully from the clear blue wisps hovering across the air around her. She doesn't say a word and there is not a single instrument being played, leaving nothing but the calming silence in the air as Kokoro dances back and forth across the stage and uses her powers to switch masks around whenever the scene changes to focus on different people. And sometimes Kokoro herself parts into the background, dropping the glow of her own mask to let the others take center stage without drawing attention towards herself.

Tenshi finds herself entranced by the spectacle, drawn into the beautiful story told through the dance of the menreiki Youkai like it was nothing she had ever seen before…As a matter of fact, Celestials never perform dances in Bhavaagra, marking such things as trivial because of their enlightenment. But despite thinking about that, Tenshi doesn't believe that it was the dance itself that got her so intrigued, but rather it was the being that was orchestrating this graceful Kagura that was grabbing her attention so tightly…And Tenshi had no idea just why she felt this way, why her chest felt warm and her face was so relaxed as she laid her body stomach first onto the keystone and rested her hands on her cheeks, kicking her feet in the air like a normal little girl filled with intrigue would.

But just as soon as the dance of the 'Hopeless Masquerade' began, it swiftly ended, the audience erupting into applause and their arms throwing rice and streamers into the sky as Kokoro bows once more and draws all of her masks out in a line in front of her skirt, having them nod as the Ko-omote mask floats beside her face once more. But even after all that has happened, the Youkai doesn't say anything to the audience, staying quiet as they all split apart from the stage and she is left alone to do her own thing. The center of the Human Village is almost vacant, and with the dance now done Tenshi figures that now would be the perfect time to descend and manipulate Kokoro into helping her with her pranks.

But as she stood on her keystone, Tenshi felt a little bit of hesitance towards following through with her plans upon looking at the Youkai and seeing her innocent, empty eyes for just a moment before she turns around and begins to float towards the back of the stage. The Celestial gets a flustered look on her red face that is swiftly shaken off with a couple twists of her head. Then Tenshi smiles, folding her arms in front of her chest as she commands her keystone to descend a few feet behind Kokoro, and to break the ice nicely with the Youkai she says politely "Hello!" Kokoro flinches, her face barely changing expressions as her previous mask vanishes in a clouded wisp to be replaced with the mask of surprise that is based on the thunder god Raiden. Kokoro then turns around slowly, looking up at the mysterious grinning blue-haired Celestial as she says to her with her shadow cast down upon the stage "Glad to meet you Hata no Kokoro. My name is Tenshi Hinawani, and do I have a proposition for you!"

_Next Time: Draw the Emotionless_

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

This is my first foray into Touhou fiction, and will most certainly not be my last. This is not my first fic, and I currently gave another one that I just started yesterday. That one gets top priority though, but I will try and work on this in-between chapters. I just wanted to write this fic because the idea just spawned in my head suddenly one day. Naturally, Touhou belongs to ZUN, and I take no credit for any of his creations that are used in this story. Feel free to review this story at your leisure, I'm not going to force you to do so if you don't have anything to say.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Mischief Match-Up**

After the one called Tenshi has introduced herself politely to Kokoro, the menreiki Youkai's current mask transforms into a wisp and is replaced with one that looks like a weird monkey face, signifying confusion towards this mysterious being. Kokoro tilts her head to the left, her hair sliding to follow her as she floats off of the stage and puts herself at eye level with Tenshi, who sits on her keystone to make it easier for the short, child-like Youkai to check out her appearance. Kokoro was trying to figure out just who Tenshi was, thinking back to a list of people a close friend of hers spoke of just a couple weeks ago. Kokoro had already come to recognize everyone in the Human Village, but the fancy outfit this blue-haired girl wore quickly made the menreiki Youkai realize that she was from somewhere outside of the village.

After one slow flight around Tenshi's body, the shy and puzzled Kokoro asks in a stoic voice "What are you?"

The mischievous Tenshi grinned and leaned forward, keeping her balance on the keystone with her hands as she moved closer to Kokoro and said in response to her inquiry "I'm a Celestial from Bhavaagra…Surely you've heard of me, right?"

Kokoro glares at Tenshi as the Celestial floats with her head only a few feet away from her body, caring not about the invasion of personal space as another glance at the cloth Tenshi wears makes Kokoro think that she might possibly be an acquaintance of the Buddhist faction that Kokoro herself has become acquainted with. But during the time she spends pondering this, Tenshi lowers her eyelids and gains a vacant look in her eyes as she pulls her body and says to the Youkai "I guess you haven't heard about me…" Despite the disappointment on her face it was clear from the tone of voice that Tenshi wasn't that surprised.

Kokoro, with her mask changing from the monkey to that of a close-eyed fox, asks the Celestial "What do you want with me?"

Tenshi leans back on her keystone, waving one finger around in the air while staring at Kokoro with a sly grin on her face before she says "Like I said before, I have a proposition for you. You see, I'm a messenger from Bhavaagra who has come to spread pleasantry across the land."

Tenshi then sighs, faking a melancholy look in her eyes as she continues to say to the listening Kokoro "But tragically, I have found that the citizens of Gensokyo are sometimes too cynical or secretive about their true feelings, and my power to manipulate the earth is not exactly useful in accomplishing my goal."

A puzzled Kokoro switches masks again, tilting her head a bit while asking in a stoic voice with a slight hint of intrigue "What does this have to do with me?" To which Tenshi snaps back into a happy expression and exclaims with a smile "I'm glad you asked!"

Folding her arms and crossing her legs on top of the keystone, the Celestial slouches forward an inch, causing a certain Moriya Shrine goddess to twitch in pain at this blasphemy far off as Tenshi explains to the menreiki Youkai in as serious of a voice as she can muster "You see, word around Bhavaagra is that you have the power to manipulate emotions. Is that true?"

Kokoro, not noticing the obvious hints of Tenshi's sinister purpose in the way her eyebrows were currently arched, responded with a simple, stoic "Yes". The Celestial then straightened her body up and said to the Youkai with her eyelids sealed and her hands planted on top of her knees "Wonderful! You see, I figured that with your help, we can help make Gensokyo a more interesting place by undoing the suppressions its citizens have put on their emotions, allowing them to live as their true selves without stressing themselves out by hiding what is buried within their hearts."

Kokoro was interested in Tenshi's idea, mostly because the idea of helping people with their emotions reminded her of when the Buddhist faction leader helped teach her how to start controlling her own emotions. In fact, with such a similarity on her mind the menreiki Youkai summoned forth the oddly proportioned Hyottoko mask of cheerfulness and listened as the Celestial said to her "So what do you say Hata no Kokoro, will you help this innocent child of Bhavaagra out?"

With the way Tenshi presented her plans, Kokoro didn't hesitate to crack a centimeter wide smile and say to the Celestial with a nod "Yes, I will gladly help you out Tenshi."

Tenshi kicks her feet out in front of her, nearly grazing Kokoro's pumpkin-like skirt as she proclaims in joy "Excellent! I'm glad you want to cooperate! I'm certain you and I will make a great team!"

The Celestial flies beside Kokoro as she says that second sentence, wrapping her right arm tightly around both of the menreiki Youkai's shoulders and pulling her close to her body much to Kokoro's surprise. But despite the change in masks from the Hyottoko to the Raiden one Kokoro's real expression remains stoic, though she can be seen wiggling her right arm to physically alert Tenshi to how uncomfortable it is for her to be this close to the Celestial. With once glance to the right as she was busy raising her left hand merrily towards the sky, Tenshi quickly lets go and embarrassingly says to Kokoro as the Youkai turns her body in a float-y manner to face the Celestial "I'm sorry, I got a bit overzealous there. Anyways, since we are already in the Human Village, why don't we start helping people here?"

Agreeing with Tenshi's suggestion, Kokoro nods and turns around, slowly floating down to the stage as the Celestial grins mischievously and thinks to herself "That was all too easy…Watch out Gensokyo, Tenshi is back in town!"

After boasting in her head like the rapscallion she is, Tenshi floats down to the stage and gets off of her keystone, kicking her right foot back and using her power of earth manipulation to launch it back towards Bhavaagra like a missile, the stone nearly knocking a second-rate Tengu reporter with tiny brown ponytails out of the sky before it returns home. The Celestial follows Kokoro close behind as the Youkai steps down off the stage, the back of her puffy skirt resting against the edge for but a second as Tenshi drops down not a moment later and says "So umm…If you wouldn't mind me asking, who are some of the more important people in the Human Village?" She has now put her innocent act back on to continue deceiving Kokoro.

The menreiki Youkai flips around gracefully, floating in the air backwards as she says stoically to Tenshi with the Hyottoko mask floating beside her "There is the lonely shopkeeper Rinnosuke at the edge of the village, the history teacher Keine…And…" Kokoro stops in place, and Tenshi in turn does the same as she notes the Youkai's long-lasting hum and asks her "Is that everyone?"

Kokoro nods her head, planting her feet against the ground as she tells the Celestial "They are the only two major residents here…Everyone else just comes and goes as they please…Most of them are likely at their homes, but we can help them out later, right?"

Tenshi smiles, her pleasant expression hiding her sinister thoughts as she responded to the innocent Youkai with "Sure, we can find them later. For now, take me to this Rinnosuke fellow, he sounds like a good place to start."

Kokoro nods her head, and after turning her body around the Youkai leads the Celestial through the Human Village towards the place where Rinnosuke lives. As they move through the crowded village, Tenshi lowers her hat slightly to help obscure her identity. After all, the Celestial recalled that the Oni occasionally made an appearance around here to drink sake, so if luck is not on her side then the two of them would likely run into each other and everything would be ruined.

The Celestial looked towards the Youkai, something else arising in her mind that comes to her tongue and causes her to ask "Say, when you change someone's emotions, does their personality change as well?" Kokoro flips around, continuing to float backwards as she responds with "I believe so…Why do you ask?"

Tenshi feeds Kokoro's curiosity with another lie "Well who knows how some people will react to their true feelings being released. If they personalities change to match their true selves, then we can avoid any possible problems." The menreiki Youkai nods her head and turns her body back around to continue weaving through the crowd of people with Tenshi following close behind. Along the way a few people say hello to Kokoro, recognizing her for her play while none of them say anything to the Celestial simple because she never made her presence known around there before, something she was bound to change once she was done with Kokoro's powers.

A few more seconds later, and the two of them have made it out of the Human Village. A large, mystifying forest known as the Forest of Magic lies on ahead, and on the border of this intriguing forest was a rather run-down house with an…*ahem* "interesting" collection of items scattered around the entrance. The sign above the door translated to "Kourindou", but Tenshi did not know what the word itself actually meant. Kokoro turns around and stops floating, noting to the Celestial that they had arrived at their destination. Tenshi didn't recognize any of the items around the shop, and found their appearances to be rather drab and uninteresting. She scoffed at these items, but reverted back to a cheerful expression upon noticing that Kokoro was looking at her. "We have arrived…" She says stoically.

"Huh, what a rather interesting place." Tenshi says with a lie so thick that if it took on a physical form Kokoro would be punched unconscious in a second. But the Youkai is oblivious to the Celestial's lie though, and turns towards the shop while saying "Rinnosuke should be around…He usually never leaves his shop."

The Celestial was intrigued by this info, and with a tilt of her head she asks "Why is that?" Kokoro quietly responds to Tenshi as she nears the door "He generally likes to keep to himself and his business isn't very popular because he tends to want to keep his items…" The Celestial thinks to herself as she once again looks at the "interesting" selection of items around the shop "Don't know why anyone would want to hold on to all of this junk…"

Tenshi and Kokoro then hear footsteps coming from afar, and a panicked Tenshi quickly grabs Kokoro by her right sleeve and drags her off to the side of the house, the Raiden mask appearing beside her face as they hide behind the large tree and peek around it to see who was coming towards the shop.

It was a human woman, an adult to be precise. She was roughly five inches taller than Tenshi, but was still only of average height considering her age. She has brown eyes and long silver hair with blue highlights that resembled the glow of a pale full moon, though the blue parts are more visible on the front than the back. On top of her hair is a dark-blue pagoda-like hat with a red ribbon on top and crimson glyphs inscribed along the sides. Her dark-blue dress with white short sleeves shows off her slender, busty figure well, but not to the extent that would make one think that she was purposely trying to attract attention towards herself. Tied to the end of her collar is another red ribbon…In fact, this person seems to have a thing for red ribbons, for her black shoes each have one on top of them. She also has unkempt white socks, but that seems like a such a minor detail after everything else. The woman walks with a warm smile on her face. In fact, she seems like a generally friendly person, and as she walks towards the store Tenshi sees the perfect person to first use Kokoro's powers on.

But first, after this mysterious woman enters the shop, Tenshi whispers to Kokoro "Who is that woman?" The menreiki Youkai pokes her head up and with vacant eyes she responds "That's Keine Kamishirasawa…The history teacher I told you about before."

"What is she doing at the shop?" Tenshi asks, hoping to find out some more info to use against Keine. "I don't know…Perhaps she has come to meet up with Rinnosuke for a date. They are both half-human, half-youkai hybrids after all…"

When Tenshi hears about the possibility of a relationship, she grins beyond the gaze of Kokoro's eyes and says with her finger pointed at one of the closest windows "Lets observe through that. We're small enough that we can both stand in front of the window." Agreeing with a nod, the mischievous Celestial and the menreiki Youkai both move out from behind the tree and go before the window, Kokoro standing on her tip-toes to see things perfectly. Inside of the shop lit barely by a set of candles are many stacks of books and dried up pieces of paper with inked text on them. Keine walks past the stacks of books and heads towards the counter, where someone is laying back in a chair with another book planted open on his face. He is also snoring, but that is barely heard behind the window.

With a gentle hand drawn away from her dress held in front of her, Keine murmurs to the man in the chair "Excuse me…" Her voice has an air of maturity to it, and is calm to the point that it seems as though little would be able to upset her. Despite how quiet she spoke, it was enough to jar the store owner awake. He thrusts himself upright, the book falling onto the messy desk top spine-first. The man's height is distinguishable from his sitting position, but most of his appearance can be discerned from where Tenshi and Kokoro currently stood. He has golden eyes behind his small rounded glasses, and short silver hair that was ruffled slightly because of the book that was on his face. His clothes are black and blue and are simplistic in design, perfect for a humble store owner such as himself. Finally there is a small brown-red bag that is wrapped around his waist.

He blinks his eyelids in an awkward manner, not because of the presence of the humble beauty standing in front of him, but rather because he was embarrassed to have fallen asleep in the middle of a perfectly interesting book. He pokes his glasses up at the center and looks towards Keine, the teacher smiling and saying to the ruffled store owner "Hello there, you must be Rinnosuke Morichika, right?"

Rinnosuke smiles, though his is more subtle in nature as he responds to Keine with "Yeah, you're speaking to him. And you are…Let me see if I recall correctly…Keine Kamishirasawa, right?" Whispering part of his thoughts to himself, the store owner snaps his fingers upon remembering his guest's name, to which she replies with "Yes. I'm surprised you know who I am, actually."

"Well…Truth be told I've only heard a few things about you from my usual clients. Like the fact that you teach history to the younger humans in the village, right?" Rinnosuke's recollection of info on one of Keine's traits was met with another happy smile and nod from her.

"So what brings you to my shop?" Rinnosuke then asks, quickly looking down at the mess on his desk and shuffling a few of the books aside to give his hands a proper spot to rest before he looks back at Keine. The teacher shuffles her head around, looking at all that Rinnosuke has to offer before responding to his inquiry with a pondering "I heard that you sell a lot of items from the outside world here…I know you have a reputation for holding on to most of what you acquire, but I was thinking about holding a class on the history of the outside world to increase interest in my class in the Human Village and thought that you might have a book on their history inside of your shop."

Rinnosuke raises his eyebrows, his mind deep in thought towards Keine's desire before he recalls something like what she wants and says while slowly lifting his body up off of his chair "I may actually have one of those types of books around here. Give me a second to check the shelves and I'll get right back to you."

Rinnosuke rises from his chair and shuffles around the right side of his desk, heading towards the source of light and turning towards the cluttered book shelves to look over them with one hand wrapped around his chin while Keine stands in front of the desk and looks around and all that Rinnosuke has in his store, humming to herself as she leans forward to examine a strange electronic device on top of one of the books. Meanwhile, Tenshi grins brightly and pulls herself away from the window, her expression returning to that of a peaceful child once Kokoro pulls away as well and turns towards her. "Well, I think its obvious what we need to do here."

With the Raiden mask still floating beside her, Kokoro tilts her head and asks "What do we need to do Tenshi? They seem to be perfectly in tune with their true emotions…" Tenshi didn't like this response from Kokoro, for she didn't expect the Youkai to pay that much attention to people's behaviors. However, the Celestial figured she could use this perception to her advantage.

Raising her pointer finger in front of herself and wiggling it around, Tenshi says to Kokoro "Ah, but didn't you notice how awkwardly Rinnosuke acted around Keine when he first noticed her?"

Kokoro responds with "I'm pretty certain he was just embarrassed to be found sleeping in his store…"

Tenshi chuckles, holding her arms beside her shoulders as she nudges them and shakes her head, saying with her eyelids shut "Poor oblivious Kokoro…Can't you see?" Widening her eyes with a merry smile on her face, the Celestial jabs one finger towards the Youkai and proclaims to her enthusiastically "That awkwardness can only mean that Rinnosuke is actually in love with Keine!"

"Oh!" Kokoro's eyes widen slightly thanks to Tenshi's (false) enlightenment, though the rest of her face remains stoic as usual. Meanwhile, with a smile as fake as a wig on her face the Celestial groans in her mind and thinks to herself "Hope I don't have to keep this overabundance of cheerfulness up…Its tiring my face muscles…"

After lowering her arm Tenshi gestures towards the window and says to Kokoro "So how about it? Lets not let love go unseen, lets reveal Rinnosuke's true feelings for Keine to the world!"

Kokoro nods her head and floats over to the window, poking her body a couple inches off the ground so she can get a clear look at the shop owner as he stands in front of the book shelves with a dusty book being blown clean in his hands. Closing her eyelids calmly, the menreiki Youkai focuses on Rinnosuke as a distorted spirit appears beside her body, forming into the shape of a Venetian mask with an illusion in the center that depicts a man and woman kissing one another. Flames similar to that of the wisp of fire surrounding the mask appears around Rinnosuke, but only Kokoro can see this happening. After a few seconds of focusing on the shop owner, Kokoro opens her eyes and Rinnosuke flinches as a strange change begins to occur within his mind, leaving him in a frozen state for five seconds before he returns to normal with seemingly nothing having happened at all.

Tenshi rushes in front of the window upon noticing Kokoro's actions and looks inside, frowning in disappointment as Rinnosuke stands in place and blinks a few times, wondering just why he briefly felt a strange sensation in his mind before brushing it off with a shrug of his shoulders. The Celestial turns towards the Youkai and bluntly declares "Nothing happened!" Kokoro then floats back and replies stoically with "My powers worked…Just give it a moment Tenshi…"

Tenshi looks back into the shop, paying close attention to what was going on inside at the moment as something changed in Rinnosuke's posture. The shop owner was stiff at the knees upon lifting his head up and facing straight into the eyes of the smiling Keine. His mouth was slightly agape, and his cheeks had become a light shade of red. He had an enamored glisten in his eyes as the beautiful Keine stared directly at him, his vision distorting the background of this woman to that of a pristine garden as he immediately saw her in a gorgeous pearly wedding dress with a bouquet of flowers grasped in her hands. What was happening in reality though was that Keine walked forward upon looking down at the book in Rinnosuke's hands, oblivious to the change in the man's expression as she plucked the book away and opened it up, staring down into it as her delicate fingers flipped across the pages, scanning them briefly to see if the information inside would be appropriate for her to teach.

A few murmurs coming between her lips, but Rinnosuke hears nothing but her lovely, inviting voice inside of his mind as he watches he examine the book. It is only once she lifts her head up and addresses him directly with "This is perfect! How much do you want for this book?" that he snaps back into reality and his expression becomes nearly normal. He blinks once and with a light stutter in his voice he says "T-Thirty yen."

"Oh, that's not much at all. Just give me a second to get that amount out…" Both appreciative and surprised by Rinnosuke's price, Keine places the book down on a stack beside herself momentarily before reaching into the right pocket of her dress to search for enough yen pieces to give to the store owner. However, Rinnosuke blushes and clenches his fist tightly in front of him, exclaiming in his mind as he tightly shuts his eyelids "This is an opportunity of a lifetime Rinnosuke…Don't screw this up for yourself!"

Keine pulls thirty yen out of her pocket and holds them up in front of her, Rinnosuke reverting back to a natural expression so he can take the money gently from the teacher, who says to him "Thank you very much for your services Rinnosuke. You were very helpful today." She tilts her head and smiles, the slow waving of her hair sticking in Rinnosuke's love struck mind as she then goes for her book and begins to turn around ready to depart, leaving Tenshi with a disappointed look on her face outside before Rinnosuke suddenly declares to Keine "Wait a second! I have something else that will prove useful to you, and I will give it to you free of cost!"

Keine's interest is piqued, and she turns around with the book folded against her chest before she asks a flustered Rinnosuke "What is it?"

Quickly falling to his knees, the shop keeper clasps his hands in front of his face and looks up towards a confused Keine, proclaiming from the bottom of his love struck heart "Since I have laid eyes upon you I have seen within my heart a strong desire to keep the image of your kind, beautiful face with me for the rest of my life. Truly, a smart, gentle soul such as yourself is one-of-a-kind in this otherwise barren land of Gensokyo, and I don't believe it would be possible for one such as myself to go another day without you and I living together in blissful matrimony…Keine Kamishirasawa, will you do me the honors of being my wife until death doth take us from this world?"

Tenshi's reaction to Rinnosuke dopey, heartfelt request was to puff her cheeks out to contain her laughter while trying to form the widest grin she could muster on her face, her body nearly collapsing backwards at the hilarity of this situation while Kokoro simply looks on in confusing. In a moment though, she floats up beside the Celestial and peeks inside of the shop just in time to see a bewildered Keine react to Rinnosuke's request with a few stoic winks and a flat "What?"

Rinnosuke, still on his knees, moves a couple inches forward and says in an urging voice "Please Keine, I know that you and I were meant to be together forever…After all, we are both half-human half-youkai hybrids. Any other filth of a man in the Human Village would die long before your prosperous beauty has even begun to be tainted by age…"

Keine was mortified by the words coming from Rinnosuke's mouth, the slandering of the humans she so carefully guards making her see the man in a different light than she did just moments ago. In fact, it was a little too jarring to think that Rinnosuke would be capable of such thoughts, especially with how humble and harmless he appeared to be before. The man was clearly a perverted lunatic desperate to capture a woman in the bonds of marriage forever, but such unwillingness to conjoin in holy matrimony left Keine with only a single response on the tip of her tongue. "I refuse to be your partner in marriage you disgusting leach of a man!" Her eyebrows slant downward in anger, her proclamation spelling trouble not just for Rinnosuke, but also for Tenshi's plans.

The Celestial's enjoyment of this spectacle is replaced with a nervous gritting of her teeth, and she thinks to herself "Crud! I didn't think that Rinnosuke person would have changed that drastically…Got to find a way to counteract this before everything is ruined…"

Kokoro quietly asks in a slightly puzzled tone "Tenshi…Why is Keine responding to Rinnosuke like that?" She seemed a little concerned, but the Celestial didn't care about that and saw a perfect chance to fix this mistake via Kokoro's powers.

Snapping away from the window, Tenshi states to the Youkai "Well you see Kokoro…Umm, Keine is also in love with Rinnosuke!"

Kokoro turns towards the Celestial and says "Oh!" in exactly the same manner she did before, though her tone of voice has a little confusion in it as she goes on to say "…But wait, then why does she sound disgusted?"

Tenshi, with her finger thrust forward much like before when she falsely enlightened Kokoro, thinks to herself "Quick Tenshi come up with an idea…" She then widens her eyes in a stroke of genius and proclaims to the Youkai "Well you see, Keine was probably wanting to declare her love to Rinnosuke first, but because he took her by surprise with his declaration she was taken aback and didn't know how to react properly to it. It may have sounded like she was disgusted, but she is actually just unable to express her true feelings towards Rinnosuke because how sudden everything was."

Tenshi knew that quickly whipped up lie was full of contradictions, but the oblivious Kokoro merely takes it all as the truth and responds to the Celestial with a stoic "So do you want me to bring out Keine's true feelings?"

Tenshi lets out a sigh of relief in her mind, and then goes on to say to Kokoro "Yeah. Give her a flirty emotion, that will make everything work out." And by 'work out' the Celestial means that it will make things more interesting for her.

Kokoro turns towards the window as Keine appears ready to beat down the love struck Rinnosuke, though the Youkai closes her eyelids and begins to use her powers on the teacher before she notices this. An aura appears around Keine, and just like with Rinnosuke she freezes in place as her mind changes to adjust to the new emotion that Kokoro is forcing to the surface. When she is done, Kokoro opens her eyes and looks a little weakened by this effort, but Tenshi has her face glued to the window and is unable to take notice of this.

Keine looks down at Rinnosuke, who is pitifully whimpering like a lovesick puppy, and with a teasing smile crossing her face the teacher flips the book out of her hand so it falls on the ground behind her. The teacher then lowers her eyelids seductively, her expression changing from the angered scowl to one of pure delight as she leans forward and clasps her knees with her hands, her lips only inches away from his forehead, her body's position giving Rinnosuke the perfect view of her cleavage as she whispers to him in a flirty tone "So you want me forever, do you Rinnosuke Morichika?"

Rinnosuke nods his head hard in an instant, replying bluntly to the taunting voice of Keine "Yes! I would go to the ends of Gensokyo to capture your heart!"

Keine pulls her body up, straightening it in such a way that her full height is in view as she turns to her side and leans back, pushing her bust forward as her delicate fingertips reach for the red ribbon on the tip of her chest and slowly tug it off, loosening the top of her dress and allowing her breasts more freedom as she turns around upon becoming satisfied with Rinnosuke's awed expression and heads for the door, one hand wrapping itself around the knob and twisting it suggestively while she stares towards the man with the ribbon draping between her fingers and a sultry smile on her face as she says "Come for me then…And fulfill your one true desire…"

She then opens the door and slowly begins to walk out with her loose-fitting dress, and after a momentary pause Rinnosuke rises to his feet and with arms firmly held beside himself he declares "THEN SO BE IT KEINE! YOU SHALL BE MINE!"

Quickly grasping his hands around his humble dress, Rinnosuke tears his clothes right off, revealing his incredibly buff body that inexplicitly becomes tan because of plot, and as he is left with nothing bit a loose white loincloth around his privates and waist Tenshi's face becomes dark red with embarrassment as she quickly blocks the vision of the poking Kokoro to avoid permanently scarring her. Rinnosuke then dashes out of his shop, the teasing Keine giggling seductively before she dashes off with the manly Rinnosuke in hot pursuit with only the echoes of his wolf-like howl being heard by the Celestial and Youkai as they vanish from sight.

Tenshi removes her hands from the front of Kokoro's eyes, her body turning towards the unbelievable spectacle she saw unfold with only one thought on her mind "Well…That was…Unexpected…"

She tries to shake the imagery of Rinnosuke in a loincloth out of her mind, replacing it with a warning to herself "Note to self…Don't mess around with the love emotion anymore…I'm trying to pull a prank here, not recreate a scene from a terribly written M-Rated Erotic Fan Fic…"

Tenshi then turns towards Kokoro, who tilts her head in confusion while one last thought goes through the Celestial's mischievous mind "Still, it was a good way to test what Kokoro is capable of…Heheh, this is going to be a lot of fun." The end of her thoughts is punctuated with a smile, which provides the perfect match for what she was going to say to the menreiki Youkai.

"Congratulations Kokoro! You made two people incredibly happy by helping them reveal their true emotions! In time, the rest of Gensokyo will join in their happiness and relief." Tenshi's encouraging words made Kokoro feel pride in what she was doing, and her lips widened a bit to smile at what she was doing for Gensokyo's people.

Tenshi then folded her arms in front of her chest and firmly asked Kokoro "So, who else of note is there in Gensokyo for us to go help?"

Kokoro hums to herself, thinking about other places she has heard of during her short time in Gensokyo before one particular location pops into her mind. She then stares at Tenshi and says "There's the Moriya Shrine on top of Youkai Mountain. There are three people residing in the shrine that can use our help." Tenshi grins, and with enthusiasm in her voice she proclaims "Then what are we waiting for? Lets head on up to this Moriya Shrine pronto!" Stamping her foot on the ground, Tenshi summons a keystone from below her feet so she and Kokoro can fly towards the Youkai Mountain, which they do post-haste. However, as they leave the Kourindou behind, a figure drenched in shadows emerges from behind the store, taking an object grasped in their right hand and putting it close to their mouth to do something with it before muttering quietly to themselves "Hmmm…I better keep an eye on the two of them, make sure things don't spiral too far out of control…" With a puff of smoke surrounding this mysterious person, they vanish from view to follow the Celestial and Youkai…

_Next Time: All Hail…Sanae?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Mighty Goddess…Sanae?**

A few minutes after Tenshi and Kokoro have departed from the Human Village, a certain someone can be seen walking around with a laid-back smile on her face. This person wears a dark blue witch's outfit with a faint pink apron on top of her clothes, with a large witch's hat of similar color resting on top of her waist-long blonde hair. Wrapped around this hat is a white bow, below it existing a set of faint pink frills. Her eyes are dark yellow and brimming with a sense of merriment as she walks through the village wearing her dark blue boots. Every fan of this series should recognize this straightforward gal as Marisa Kirisame, the aptly titled "Ordinary Magician".

But why is she in the Human Village you may ask? Well, that is something only she knows inside of her mind, and echoing in her thoughts at that moment as she lifts the front of her hat up to look up at the beating sun is a disgruntled _"Man, its almost summertime, isn't it? Bleh, there better be some sort of incident happening soon to distract me from the heat…If not, I can just practice a bit of magic…Perhaps try and make it so my Mini-Hakkero can unleash a flamethrower during danmaku duels…" _As she wanders around deep in thought, a couple humans turn and greet her by name, though with her focus set elsewhere Marisa takes a bit of time to respond.

After a bit of walking the Ordinary Magician notices some commotion going on in the distance, as a few humans point on ahead of where she stands and murmur to themselves. Marisa, curious to know what's going on, moves in closer to listen while folding her arms behind her head, smiling as she thinks to herself _"Something appears to be going on over there." _

Marisa will soon regret being curious though, for as she pokes her head a bit forward she sees a familiar figure sprinting her way, though her behavior appeared to be off compared to usual. With eyes glazed in disbelief and mouth partially agape, Marisa commented in a boyish tone "Wait a minute, isn't that Keine?"

The usually gentle and protective teacher was running on ahead with her head turned, her body bouncing like a youthful lady as she tauntingly says to the man chasing her close behind "Surely you must not want me if your pace is this slow~"

She dashes on by Marisa with an alluring giggle, and as the Ordinary Magician lifts her head up and turns around to watch Keine head towards the village exit the loincloth wearing Rinnosuke sprints on by like a madman in love while declaring to Keine "YOU SHALL BE MINE, KAMISHIRASAWA! MINE FOREVER!"

The two figures run off into the distance, leaving most of the humans murmuring to themselves in confusion while a befuddled Marisa stands in place with a blank look in her eyes before she flatly says with a slanted expression on her face "Huh?" Her right hand moves towards the side of her head, and with a light scratch the Ordinary Magician thinks to herself _"What was that all about? Was that actually Rinnosuke and Keine?" _

While Marisa accidentally becomes involved in the plot of this fic, the one responsible for this madness is busy flying through the air on her trusted keystone, with her "tool" Hata no Kokoro following close behind with a stoic expression still on her face. The two residents of Gensokyo are on their way to Youkai Mountain, making this the second time today that Tenshi has traveled there. This time though the Celestial is going to be headed towards unfamiliar territory in the form of the Moriya Shrine, "a lone shrine that houses three people" going by what Kokoro mentioned. The lack of information on these folk made Tenshi a little worried, but if they performed careful observation like with Keine and Rinnosuke then it should be easy to figure out how to manipulate their emotions for the Celestial's enjoyment.

"How much further do we have to go?" Tenshi asks Kokoro, her voice being carried in the wind as she holds on to her hat with her right hand. The Youkai pokes her head up and replies with "I do not know."

Immediately upon hearing that, Tenshi's eyes go wide and she stamps her foot down to stop her keystone on the spot, her body staying on top of it as Kokoro quickly stops her flight and floats beside the flabbergasted Celestial, who proclaims in disbelief with her body bent forward slightly "You don't even know where we are going?!"

Tenshi's breath causes Kokoro's hair to fly back a bit, but her face doesn't change expressions as per usual. The Raiden mask appears beside her, reverting to the Hyottoko mask as Tenshi lifts her body up and slaps the front of her face, calming down before murmuring to the Youkai "Ugh…Do you at least have a general idea as to what this shrine looks like?"

Kokoro floats still, pondering to herself about Tenshi's inquiry for a few seconds before shaking her head and saying to the Celestial "I don't know what it looks like. But its just a shrine, how hard could it be to identify it?"

Tenshi, despite being disappointed at Kokoro's lack of knowledge regarding locations and appearances, could at least agree with her on the fact that its not too hard to identify a shrine. After all, Tenshi had visited a particular one long ago. Still, the prospect of wandering around the Youkai Mountains, even with the keystone, was not a wondrous one for the Celestial. Hopefully the two of them would find this "Moriya Shrine" quickly. "Alright, lets start looking around…Hopefully that one tengu is still busy delivering newspapers, I don't want to run into her again anytime soon." Tenshi remarks before the two of them fly off to seek out their destination.

Of course, if there's one thing the Celestial could recognize, it was the appearance of a shrine. Just to make sure Kokoro knows as well, Tenshi sticks close by her as they fly around the mountains. The sunlight really didn't help them out, especially since as high up as they are they feel the heat at a greater intensity than they would have on the ground, especially since it was nearing the high of afternoon. The Youkai and Celestial eventually notice a large, multi-tiered lake on the side of the mountain, with a lone building on the peak of the mountain itself that looks very similar to another shrine Tenshi has seen. There is tall staircase leading up to this shrine, but Tenshi and Kokoro wouldn't have to bother with that considering their current mode of transportation.

Descending from the skies after the Celestial points the building out, the two beings land off to the right side of the building, avoiding getting near the windows so they won't get caught by its inhabitants. As they land, Tenshi notices a rather thick Shimenawa hung across the entrance of the building. _"Huh…Do these people have a god sealed up inside of their shrine?" _She thinks.

While a slight smirk appeared across her face, Tenshi dispelled the idea of trying to unseal the god, seeing as though he knew nothing about what type of god was inside the shrine and wouldn't want to cause tons of destruction to Gensokyo. That's not the type of person she was after all. "So who exactly lives here?" Tenshi asks Kokoro as she gets off of her keystone.

"Three people…A shrine maiden named Sanae Kochiya and her two goddesses Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya." Kokoro responds. "If I heard right, despite Moriya being the name of the shrine, Kanako is the owner of the place."

"Huh, that's interesting." Tenshi says with eyebrows raised and a honest expression of intrigue on her face. "Wait, the one called Sanae is a what?"

Having barely heard the title the Youkai assigned to the girl, Kokoro has to face Tenshi and say to her "She is a shrine maiden, the second one in all of Gensokyo."

Tenshi didn't need a reminder on who the second one is. She knows her personally from a past experience, and as she recalled she had the most fun messing with her when she caused that one incident. The prospect of messing around with a second shrine maiden brought ecstasy to the Celestial's mind, but she kept a neutral expression on her face to keep Kokoro fooled. "Actually, speaking about the people in this shrine…You said two of them are goddesses. Do you think your powers will work on them?" Tenshi asks.

Kokoro lightly nods, saying with a hint of confidence in her voice "Yes. I should be able to so long as they aren't aware of my presence."

"Well we wouldn't want to let them see us in the first place." Tenshi says in response to that. With those few details out of the way, the two beings quietly walked on ahead and stood at the side of the Moriya Shrine, popping their heads up to see through the cross barred window and hopefully find the owners of the shrine inside. To the back of the first room there appeared to be an altar, with two rods of steel called onbashira standing beside a large statue in the center of the back part of the room. Wrapped behind the head of this statue was a rusted steel snake curled into the shape of an infinity sign. Tenshi figures that this was the sigil of the goddess Kanako, and observation that would not be confirmed directly to her despite how accurate her assumption was.

Taking a look at the statue, the Celestial and Youkai see that the being it depicts is rather imposing in height, even though its legs are crossed and its body is slouched forward slightly. The person has an elaborate red shirt with long white sleeves and a round mirror over the center of her rather gargantuan chest. Below the shirt is a long black shirt with a red flower print hem. Above the peach "skin" of this statue was a poofy, intense blue hairstyle that looked far too realistic for a statue. The eyelids of the statue were shut, preventing the two from seeing what color they were depicted as. The last thing of note was the large, twisting rope circle Shimenawa with shide wrapped around it floating behind the statue.

"_I wonder if that's the goddess that owns this place…" _Tenshi thinks to herself as she stares at the statue. After a few seconds of staring, the Celestial hears a noise coming from the eastern part of the shrine, and immediately pushes down on Kokoro's head to lower her to the point where only to top of their eyes poke through the windows. It strains their necks a bit, but its better than getting caught. Coming around the corner of the altar is a teenage girl that is probably a couple years older appearance wise than Tenshi. She wears the familiar outfit of a shrine maiden with a blue and white color to it, the blue areas covered in light blue polka dots and stripes. The girl has long, light green hair and yellow eyes that have a slight blue-green tint to them. Wrapped around one side of her hair is a snake-shaped accessory, with a hair clip shaped like a frog's head attached above the prior accessory. The girl appears to not wear socks, her feet instead covered by aquamarine-colored shoes. It was hard to note what kind of chest the lass had, for the puffiness of her shrine maiden outfit made it hard to figure out, so Tenshi didn't bother trying to guess. The last thing that the two beings noticed on this girl was the fact that she currently was sweeping the sleek wood floors of the shrine with a thick brushed broom. Judging from the sweat trickling across her skin and clothes, she had been working diligently for quite some time now.

Tenshi identified the shrine maiden as Sanae Kochiya, since there was only one of her kind in this building. But as the girl stopped sweeping at the center of the room and leaned her arms against the top of the broom, she did something rather strange and turned to face the statue, saying to it in an exhausted, youthful dialect "Ha...I-I'm done at last cleaning the shrine…"

Kokoro and Tenshi turn to each other, wondering just why the girl was speaking to the inanimate object before they are forced to look back upon hearing a deep breath being released from someone who wasn't Sanae. Something had changed on the statue, and that was that its mouth was now partially agape and the eyelids appeared looser. The statue then moved, revealing that it was actually a living being instead of an inanimate object like originally thought. The being lifted her eyelids up with a slight smirk on her face as she straightened her body and latched her hands around her kneecaps, saying to Sanae in a barely fooled tone of voice "Are you truly done Sanae?"

The girl's expression becomes nervous, as the snake-like eyes of the imposing figure glare at her, and with a stutter in her voice mixed with the exhaustion grasping her body she insists to the blue-haired woman "L-Lady Kanako, I assure you that everything has been tidied up. I've even organized all of your onbashira by size in your room."

"And while I appreciate all that you've done…" Kanako unfurls her legs and pushes her onto her feet, standing up tall above the height of her mounted onbashira before she slams her hands down on top of them and says with a smile on her face "But you forget that you still have to clean my favorite onbashira down to the very last bit of grime."

Sanae gets a displeased look on her face, and with her face sinking down against her arms she mumbles to Kanako "Oh come Lady Kanako…Can't you wait until Lady Suwako gets back? Its supposed to be her turn to clean your onbashira anyways…I'm really tired and just want to go take a dip in the lake to relax."

Kanako smiles empathetically, removing her hands from her onbashira so she can fold her arms underneath her chest and says gently to Sanae "I understand that you have been working hard Sanae, but Suwako is busy checking up on the nuclear reactor and it just so happened that she needed to do that on the day she was supposed to clean my onbashira…" The goddess closes her eyelids and hums to herself, continuing to smile until she gently tells Sanae "Tell you what…If you push yourself just a little harder and deal with my onbashira, I'll cover all of your duties for the next week."

Sanae's face immediately perks up in shock and joy, and with a stutter in her voice she says "R-Really? You'd do that for me Lady Kanako?"

"Of course. It might not be much, but I would be more than happy to take relieve you of some of your burdens for now…" Kanako responds in a honest tone.

"O-Oh no no no, this hasn't been stressful for me at all Lady Kanako! You don't need to-" Sanae, with the kindness in her heart, tries to insist to the goddess that she didn't need her burdens dealt with, only for Kanako to reply with her eyelids opened "Sanae…Do not try to make excuses. Your stress is as clear as the lakebed's surface. You still have your youthful beauty…Cherish it while you can."

A blush of thankful embarrassment appears on Sanae's cheeks, and after straightening her body and dropping her broom the shrine maiden nods her head and says with gusto "Thank you very much then Lady Kanako!"

Quickly reaching into her right sleeve, Sanae pulls out her straight paper decorated gohei and holds it in front of her body, placing her left hand beside the end of the upright gohei as she closes her eyelids and chants quietly to herself, the words unable to be heard by Tenshi and Kokoro. When she was done speaking, a swirling orb of water formed into existence, spawning from it a moist cloth that she will use to make Kanako's onbashiras squeaky clean. The cloth is grasped in her left hand, and she puts her gohei away before taking a few steps forward and kneeling in front of where Kanako once stood. The goddess has moved aside, allowing Sanae to brace the left onbashira with her left arm while slowly sweeping the moist cloth along the height of the steel rod.

Now that the two figures have gone silent, Tenshi has figured out how to have Kokoro mess with their emotions for her personal enjoyment. Pulling back from the window, the Celestial whispers to the Youkai "Kokoro, I have a good idea on how to help the Moriya Shrine people out."

The Youkai floats away from the window and turned to face the Celestial, saying to her with quiet honesty "Tenshi, I don't think we need to help anyone here. They seem to be fine to me…"

Tenshi quickly wiggles her right pointer finger in front of her chest, muttering "Tsk tsk tsk" to the 'oblivious' Kokoro before saying with a merry smirk on her face "Once again Kokoro, you don't see the bigger picture. Did you notice how timid the shrine maiden appeared to be around that goddess?"

"Not really…No…" Kokoro says after giving Tenshi's words only a moment of thought. The Celestial lets out a haughty chuckle with her arms crossed and says with her eyelids shut and held pulled back "And that's why I am around to catch things that you cannot."

Tenshi opens her eyelids and says with a false expression of insight on her face, explaining with a delicate shrug of the shoulders towards the Youkai "Its clear as day that the goddess Kanako is overtaxing the shrine maiden, keeping her submissive to her will so she doesn't someday learn to control her."

"…But she was perfectly willing to help Sanae out with her duties for a week. How is that an act of oppression?" Kokoro brings up a logical argument to Tenshi's barely thought out lie, but that is simply because the Celestial had a plan in mind to counter such an argument and further convince the Youkai to listen to her idea for a prank.

With a smirk signifying her innermost, mischievous thoughts that Kokoro is once again oblivious towards, Tenshi says to her "Did you not notice the snake sigil where the goddess sat? That means that Kanako is the serpent goddess…And if there's one thing you cannot trust, it is a snake. Lies are their forte, and I absolutely despise liars."

At this moment Tenshi should have been punched hard in the face, but Gensokyo unfortunately does NOT have a Youkai with a "power to the extent of irony". For now, the most the Celestial will be punished for her words is via one last inquiry from Kokoro, who asks "But how is Kanako lying?"

Tenshi swiftly responds with "Simple. Notice how overjoyed Sanae was when Kanako said she'd 'help'?" The Celestial indents the air to emphasize the broad definition of the word help, continuing on afterwards with "The best way to keep someone timid oppressed is to keep getting their hopes up and swiftly crush them, leaving them with no confidence in themselves and making oppression all the easier to maintain. The moment the time comes for Kanako to do Sanae's work, she'll swiftly change her mind or pretend to forget the promise…And Sanae's hopes will never come to pass…"

Playing up the pity card towards the shrine maiden in tune with her lie, Tenshi shuts her eyelids and hangs her head solemnly, taking her hat off and holding it in front of her chest with a flat hand. Peering slyly through her right eyelid, the Celestial watches as a new mask similar to a mockery of a horned red faced devil appears beside Kokoro, and with eyebrows slanted slightly the Youkai says to Tenshi "Something must be done around here…"

Tenshi now had Kokoro wrapped up in her grasp for this part of her prank, and she would use her emotion controlling powers to create the ideal scenario for herself to enjoy. Undoing her solemn expression to put on one of good cheer, the Celestial quietly proclaims while putting her hat back on "Good on you Kokoro! Here's my suggestion on how to correct the disorder in the Moriya Shrine."

Tenshi walks over to Kokoro and leans beside her right ear. With the mask of the Youkai switching back to the Hyottoko, Kokoro listens intently as the Celestial whispers instructions to her on what to do, explaining in short detail since there was not a need to confuse the Youkai with complicated terms. Kokoro nods a few times to show that she understands, and after Tenshi pulls her body back she gives a thumbs-up of confidence and lets the Youkai get to work. Kokoro turns to face the window and floats up slightly, closing her eyelids and focusing on Sanae as a blue flame floats beside her body, spawning forth an African crafted Indian mask of stone that has a prevalent scowl on it.

A light aura appears around the cleaning Sanae. Kanako immediately senses something amiss in the atmosphere, her body flinching with unease as that very feeling quickly subsides and she unfurls her arms upon noticing that Sanae has stopped moving. "Sanae? Are you ok?" She asks with a hint of curious concern in her voice.

A few seconds after silence covers the shrine, Sanae's left fingers crumple up the cloth, and with a condescending voice the shrine maiden proclaims "What did you call me you knave of a 'goddess'?!"

Kanako is taken aback by Sanae's sudden words of harshness, and with a little stutter of disbelief the goddess says to the shrine maiden "I beg your pardon?!"

Sanae, with fists clenched tightly in anger, turns her head towards the goddess and gives her a piercing glare of anger, her body slowly rising up off the ground as she proclaims in a haughty, over-the-top accent "You shall refer to your superior by her title, knave! Say it now before you are punished by thy divine wrath!"

Kanako didn't take Sanae's threats seriously, focusing more on the disturbing fact that her personality has completely changed along with her emotional state. With her eyes wandering around the shrine, barely listening as the shrine maiden proclaimed with her body turned to look Kanako's way "Are your ears blocked with the grime of sin?! Call me by my title knave! You shall receive no second chances!"

Kanako replies in a nonchalant voice "Sanae, just give it a rest and calm down, can't you tell that something is wrong around here?"

The shrine maiden scoffs, her mouth agape in utter disbelief after the goddess defied her commands, and with a scowl crossing her arched eyebrow face Sanae declares to Kanako "The only thing wrong around here is how long I have allowed you to keep me under your tyrannical foot! Lest you not forget, I am in control of both goddesses of the Moriya Shrine, which includes yourself! That makes me superior to you in every shape and form…Henceforth why I demand that you refer to me now and forever as 'High Goddess Sanae'!"

In an outburst of rage towards Kanako that was not reflective of her true personality, Sanae swings her arms out and knocks Kanako's favorite onbashira down against the ground with a mighty thud one after the other, but the goddess doesn't flinch as she continues to seek out the source of disorder in the Moriya Shrine. However, the very moment that she notices a strange glow coming from the farthest right window Kanako's body is overcome with a powerful sensation, her body stiffening up despite her instantly trying her damnedest to resist the feeling that was overcoming her very mind. Kokoro had to work hard to manipulate the goddess' emotions with a blank white mask with a neutral expression, but eventually Kanako succumbed to her powers and was left frozen in place as the arrogant Sanae watches the flinching goddess.

Though her face is briefly puzzled by this, Sanae quickly blurts out in anger "Fine, it seems you need to learn your place, knave!" And with a thrust of her arms through the air the goddess wraps her hands around the Shimenawa and rips it away from Kanako's shirt, tearing part of the fabric off as she quickly takes the Shimenawa and attaches it to the back of her shrine maiden outfit. With the shides swaying around as Sanae falls onto her rear at the center of the altar, the shrine maiden folds her legs and laughs haughtily, declaring to the frozen stiff Kanako "Hahaha! Your Shimenawa shall prove to be more fitting on me, for this shall be the rebirth of order in the Moriya Shrine as I, High Goddess Sane Kochiya, shall take the reigns for myself!"

As Sanae's eyelid-shut laughter continues for what would seemingly be forever, Kanako slowly turns around, her eyes covered by the shadow of the front of her hair as the shrine maiden opens her eyes and says with a taunting voice and a shit-eating smirk "What is it knave? Are you upset that I have damaged your prized possessions?!" The once kind Sanae was now a relentless, arrogant human with a god-complex, and her aggression towards the gentle Kanako was never going to end at this rate. But this didn't anger the true goddess of the Moriya Shrine, for she quickly falls to her knees and palms and with a whimper coming from her mouth and tears trickling down her trembling face Kanako declares in an overly submissive, apologetic tone "I-I-I'm so sorry High Goddess Sanae! I-I-I don't know what was going through my head…What blinded me to your true glory and supreme magnificence!"

Sanae was as equally shocked by Kanako's 180 in attitude as the goddess was towards that of the shrine maiden's, but that momentary expression of surprise was replaced with a haughty smirk as the shrine maiden latched her hands around her knees and said "Good…Good…This is a wonderful start, knave. But for your grand defiance of my will I shall require a lot more than a simple apology!"

Kanako, wishing nothing more now than to please Sanae, begs eagerly with "Anything for you High Goddess! Your wishes are mine to follow for all eternity!"

Gone now was the imposing, mighty goddess Kanako, her dignity swept away and replaced with the groveling mess that kneeled down before the arrogant Sanae. The two onlookers shared differing views on this matter. Kokoro, blinded with the lies of the Celestial, saw justice in what she had done, even though the effort she exerted on Kanako weakened her body immensely. Tenshi, on the other hand, saw immense humor in seeing the once imposing goddess groveling in front of the shrine maiden. And watching the shrine maiden's mood and personality changed like it did made the Celestial desire to confront the other shrine maiden swiftly…But alas dropped that train of thought and whispered in her mind with a smirk on her face _"She'll be the last one…That's what I will do…"_

However, Tenshi enjoyment of this scenario would not last long, for the doors of the Moriya Shrine quickly swung open, and merrily walking into the building was a short bodied girl with a short simple purplish-blue dress with a frog print design, large white sleeves stitched onto the torso, and a white collar. The girl has medium length blond hair, grey eyes, and a light brown wide-brimmed hat with two frog eyes on the top that move on their own. Finishing the ensemble is her white kneehigh socks and black shoes. The girl cheerfully waves her hand in the air, her eyelids shut tight as she proclaims in a laid back tone "Kanako, Sanae, I'm back from the underground!"

Tenshi quickly realizes that she forgot about the third person living inside of the Moriya Shrine, the second goddess Suwako Moriya, and that her sudden appearance here may very well ruin her prank here if things go awry. For the moment, the Celestial stood at the window and observed the frog motif goddesses actions. Suwako opened her eyes, a puzzled expression crossing her face as she lets out a light murmur and taps the edge of her right sleeve against her mouth upon noticing Sanae sitting at Kanako's altar with the Shimenawa on her back and Kanako herself kneeling on the ground in front of her.

"Huh? What are you guys doing?" Suwako is curious about the poses the two have taken, and with a welcoming smile Sanae extends her right hand out and says in a gentler tone than she has taken with Kanako "Ah, you have returned at last ancestor…Now you can join this knave in admiring my holiness." She was still partially arrogant, but at least showed more respect due to their relation.

Suwako tilted her head and murmured once more, but didn't say anything until Kanako swiftly turned her head towards the frog goddess and proclaimed with urgency from her flustered face "Get over her and grovel before our High Goddess, Suwako!"

The frog goddess' eyebrows arched, suspicions creeping along her expression much to Tenshi's worry. However, before the Celestial could tell Kokoro to do something, Suwako's face snapped into a more laid back mode and she cheerfully says "Oh I get it. You guys are playing a game."

Crouching down and placing her palms on the ground much like a frog, Suwako leaped over beside Kanako and turned her head towards her, saying with a mischievous smile "I'm glad to see you are really going along with this game Kanako. Being serious all the time is bad for your complexion."

Kanako quickly blurted in response to Suwako's words "Hush your tongue unless its to praise our High Goddess!"

Suwako shrugged her shoulders, figuring that Kanako's response was all a part of this game before she herself bows before Sanae and sings her praises alongside the more submissive Kanako. The shrine maiden is pleased with all that she hears, and her long-drawn smirk says it all about how she feels.

Tenshi breaths a light sigh of relief. With the way things were now, Suwako's emotions would not have to be manipulated to keep the prank going. However, the shock brought on by the goddesses sudden appearance has left the Celestial without any further interest in the antics of the Moriya Shrine. Now it was time to move on to a new target, and with a turn of her body Tenshi is ready to ask Kokoro about another destination to travel to. However, the Youkai appeared barely able to stand after she had used her powers, and as Tenshi looks at her with a half-honest expression of concern Kokoro murmurs quietly to the Celestial "C-Can we take a break before we go help someone else? I-I feel a bit faint…"

The Youkai starts to collapse, but Tenshi quickly dashes forward and holds her arms below her back to catch her out. The Celestial then flinches in surprise, implying that her actions were not entirely her own. Kokoro pokes her head up and creates a one centimeter wide smile, thanking Tenshi for catching her with a meek "Thanks…" Before her head sinks back down and her eyelids shut to represent unconsciousness. The Celestial, staring at Kokoro's young body, is surprised by how light the Youkai is to carry. It was like lifting a balloon, an empty, air-filled shell…Tenshi quickly shakes her head, realizing that by using that terminology she was starting to feel pity for Kokoro. "No no no…She's just a tool for my own ends…Its not like I feel empathy towards her or anything." Tenshi denies her feelings with a whisper, but upon taking another glance at Kokoro she rolls her eyes towards the upper right corner of her sockets and says with a nonchalant voice "Still…I guess I should try and find a nice spot for her to relax at." Walking over to her keystone, Tenshi steps on top of it and quickly rides off, leaving the Moriya Shrine far behind as she carefully makes sure not to drop Kokoro…

_Next Time: In the Thicket of the Forest_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The Rage of an Immortal**

The sun was beginning to set on Gensokyo, the pale orange glow of lights filling the once blue skies as the Seven-Colored Magician Marisa Kirisame flies on her trusted broomstick over the Forest of Magic, having accomplished her tasks in the Human Village for the day just moments ago. She sits sideways on the broom, her feet hanging dangerously out in the air as she lays her palms beside her hips…Really, such reckless behavior perfectly reflects what type of person Marisa is, and one should not ever been concerned when they see her doing such things on her broom.

At the moment though, Marisa isn't fully into her ride across Gensokyo, for hidden behind her halfway smile is a mind reflecting on that rather strange occurrence she saw in the Human Village. _"I still can't get over that…Was that actually Keine and Rinnosuke I saw? They acted completely different from how they usually do…Hell, I don't think Rinnosuke even knew I was there as he ran past me." _

Marisa lets out a light "Tsk" and says in a boyish tone "I really should run this by Reimu…This could be the start of another incident…"

After voicing her idea, Marisa pokes her eyes up and thinks about things a little further, in her mind debating _"Of course, I could just go and solve this incident by myself…" _against the point she brought up just now. In the end she decides against going solo on this mission, rationalizing out loud "Eh, Reimu hasn't solved the last few incidents at all…She's probably itching for a chance to solve one. I'll still try and solve it myself, but its only fair to let her know what's going on."

With a zip through the skies commanded by the click of her fingers, Marisa flew through the skies towards her destination at the very edge of Gensokyo, which is a small run-down Shinto shrine standing at the end of a lone stone road at the top of a tall staircase. Behind the shrine lied a miniature warehouse, but that was literally all there was to note in this area. The person running the place was obviously poor, but it would not be wise to remind her of such things…Marisa knows this from experience.

Sitting on the front steps of the shrine is a lone girl of moderate height and age. Her brown-black hair is long and loose, connected together by a large red ribbon at the back of her head and red rubes on her side locks. She wears a miko uniform, though it varies different from the norm thanks to the red skirt, sleeveless red top with a white collar that is tied with a blue ribbon, and a pair of white detached sleeves which expose her armpits and the sarashi around her moderate chest. Currently the "Shrine Maiden of Paradise" Reimu Hakurei was hunched over with a somber blush on her face as she lifts a bowl of sake towards her mouth and takes a sip from it, a few droplets leaking out from the sides and trickling down onto the warm dark red cloth that is wrapped around her body.

The girl pokes her head up with eyes deeply glazed over, but upon noticing Marisa descending from above a smile crosses her face and her eyelids shut tight as she greets her friend with a prolonged "Heeeeello Marisa…"

Marisa is naturally puzzled by Reimu's behavior as she lands on the ground and sweeps the broom out from under her body, grasping it tightly to the right of her as an exasperated look crosses her face and with a hesitant tone she greets her friend with "Ummm…Hello to you too Reimu. What's up?"

"Oh nothing…" Reimu responds with an innocent smile, and as Marisa walks closer she turns her head to the left and is surprised to see about three piles worth of sake dishes standing beside the shrine maiden. "Oy, Reimu…Why are you drinking so much sake?"

Reimu tilts the sake dish in her hand to the right, the empty bowl falling out of her lanky grasp as she creates a drunken smile and says to Marisa "Well…I have a lot more time on my hands to drink sake these days…After all, nobody needs Reimu to solve incidents anymore! Nope, Miracle Girl, Holy Bitch and the Egotistical Taoist can handle things just fine on their own!"

The shrine maiden swings her body back in a bare bones attempt to express rage at the situation, her back plopping hard against the hard wood porch of the shrine as the cloth unfurls around her in a wrinkled manner. Marisa blinks twice while her face remains relatively surprised, in her mind she thinks _"Oh great, this is worse than I imagined…Reimu is becoming self-destructive because she hasn't solved any incidents lately!" _

Snapping into reality, Marisa exclaims to her dear friend in a blunt tone "Oy, Reimu…You can't just sit on your ass like this! There's something wrong going on in the Human Village again! When I went down there earlier today, Keine and Rinnosuke were acting completely different than their usual selves…Keine had become a gigantic skank and Rinnosuke was nearly in the buff…And I think they were expressing _**love**_ towards each other."

The very thought of that word nearly made Marisa revolt, but not because she dislikes the concept but rather because of the two people involved in the emotion. Despite hearing this news, Reimu continues to lay against the ground and weakly replies to the Seven Colored Magician with "…They could really have feelings for each other…Rinnosuke did seem kind of like the lecherous type, and we can't really say that Keine didn't have it in her to become a skank…This isn't the start of an incident Marisa…So don't try and get my hopes up like that again…"

Reimu, after sharing her view on the matter to Marisa, shuts her eyelids and lets out a prolonged, merry sigh thanks to all of the sake flowing through her body. The witch still doesn't believe that everything is right in the Human Village despite what Reimu said. With an annoyed grunt Marisa declared to Reimu with an impatient, booming voice "You listen to me Reimu Hakurei, there is an incident going on right this instant and if you don't get off your ass and solve it then I will simply have to have Suika drag you to the Human Village with her bare hands!"

Reimu, barely concerned with Marisa's threat, turns her body sideways and responds "Go right ahead and try…Suika hasn't been at the shrine for the last couple of weeks anyways…" This information surprised the Seven Colored Magician, who calmed down for a moment and thought to herself _"Wait, Suika isn't around? …Where the hell could that oni have gone off to at a time like this?"_

With Marisa left to deal with the unmotivated, drunken Reimu, its time to return back to the "protagonist" of our story, Tenshi, who has carried the unconscious Hata no Kokoro through the skies of Gensokyo via her arms and keystone. After a decent trip, the Celestial descends into an inconspicuous thicket of tall bamboo shoots, finding a lone patch of dirt amidst those shoots that she can plant her keystone into and swiftly leap onto the ground, turning around and summoning forth another keystone to create a stable enough bed to lay Kokoro down across and give her a decent enough chance to recover her lost energy without anyone disrupting her.

During Kokoro's rest, not a single mask appears around her, which Tenshi finds rather interesting considering that there certainly had to be a "Mask of Sleep" or something that the Youkai could use at this moment. Or maybe Kokoro did have such a mask and simply couldn't use it because of a lack of energy needed to maintain its physical form around her body. As the Celestial pondered these ideas in her mind, she stood over the Youkai with arms folded, paying close attention to her young, lithe little body and her flowing pink hair as it hangs over the sides of the front keystone…As a matter of fact, Tenshi may be paying too much attention to Kokoro's appearance, a warm smile crossing her face at that very moment that expresses an emotion completely unnatural for the type of person the Celestial is…

Tenshi, with her heart pumping twice and her face growing warm with an overflow of blood, suddenly snaps back into reality and realizes that something is definitely wrong with how she is behaving at that moment, and with a shake of her head the Celestial denies what she just felt welling up inside of her heart and thinks to herself _"She's just a tool for my own ends…I don't see her as anything else…"_ But as her eyelids creak open and she stares down at Kokoro, another thought that fights against her denial emerges _"…Don't I?" _

The Celestial is thankfully, in her opinion, distracted by the sound of footsteps beyond the bamboo shoots to the right of her. Drawing into her right hand the Hisou no Tsurugi in the form of a sword, Tenshi rushes towards the bamboo and cuts it down easily, the split shoots falling left and right in front of her and opening the way into a more open part of the forest where the noise she heard lies. Leaping beyond the pocket after glancing back to make sure that Kokoro will not be awoken, Tenshi lands before a lone person and finds her body temperature suddenly rising as sweat begins to form across her forehead.

Her body's reaction is caused by the heat exuding from an aura of wild flames surrounding a girl of indiscernible age. This mysterious flaming girl has burning red eyes and ankle-length pale violet hair that almost deceives Tenshi into thinking its white due to the flames. Her clothes consist of a light brown shirt and dark red overalls that are decorated with paper charms that the Celestial recognizes as the type that help protect the wearer from being burned by flames. The girl's hair is also tied with these very same red and white charms, thus further confirming Tenshi's suspicions.

The girl's expression is currently painted with pure rage, her scowl matching the intensity of her flaming aura as her fists are clenched tightly beside her body. Tenshi takes up the Hisou no Tsurugi in defense, but after a momentary glance the girl calms down and the flames mostly subside from her body as she straightens her posture and tucks her hands into her pants pockets. Only a few embers floating around her hair as she looks down at the Celestial, her height upon fully standing being a couple inches above Tenshi's own. With a quiet, partially apologetic voice the girl says "Sorry…I thought you were someone else…"

The girl turns around and stares up at the fading sunlight sky as Tenshi cautiously dispels her sword and stands up straight, listening as the girl asks "So…Are you lost or are you trying to head to the Eientei?"

The girl apparently assumed that Tenshi was a flightless human by asking that, meaning that she didn't notice her descend into the forest. Wanting to clarify on the situation for the girl's sake, the Celestial says "Neither one. Me and my companion are simply resting before we head on out to the Human Village for the night."

The girl tilts her head, saying in a partially intrigued voice "Oh, so you can fly? I suppose I shouldn't have mistaken you for a normal human after seeing your sword…Still, a part of me wishes that you were heading to the Eientei…"

The girl raises her left hand out from her pants and draws forth a melancholy flame, the crackling of its heat entering Tenshi's ears as a curious, awe-inspired look is made visible through her eyes and she lifts her up to ask "Oh, how come?"

The girl, with a neutral expression, asks the Celestial "You said you were from the Human Village, right?"

Tenshi nods, and the girl goes on to say "Well just today I was planning to head there and say hi to my friend Keine, but before I got the chance I saw her dashing through the forest with a frivolous, nearly bare-naked man following close behind…And with the way she was acting I almost couldn't recognize her. She didn't acknowledge my presence, she didn't have that tender smile like she always had whenever we walked…It was like she had become a completely different person…"

The girl was clearly saddened by the changes that happened to Keine, but Tenshi merely chuckled in her mind upon being updated on the actions and whereabouts of her first victims. However, her sly grin vanished and was replaced with a sudden heartbeat and flinch of shock upon seeing a gristly aura of flame appear around the girl as a hard grit scowl crosses her face and she declares in an unnerved manner "And I just know that Kaguya is somehow behind all of this! She probably had Eirin change Keine to get me riled up for another fight with her! But I won't play her sick game by her rules! If she wants to fight me, she can come here and fight me and not hide in Eientei like a coward!"

From the rage spoken by this girl, Tenshi quickly pieces together a few things, the most important of them being the identity of the girl in front of her. She was Fujiwara no Mokou, an immortal human forever interlocked into battle with the Lunarian Kaguya Houraisan thanks to both of them consuming the famed Hourai Elixir. Despite the legend of their conflict predating Tenshi's birth by a good many centuries, the Celestial did remember it being discussed long ago in Bhavaagra. After that long-winded recollection Tenshi continues piecing things together, realizing that Mokou wanted to take her along to the Eientei to use as bait in order to see what type of traps Kaguya might have set for Mokou.

After Mokou had let out most of her rage in that single declaration, she reverted back to the quiet, reclusive person she was beforehand and calmly says to Tenshi "Forgive my outburst…You probably don't even understand what I'm saying."

"No, I've heard about you and Kaguya." Tenshi chooses to be honest, for there was no harm in doing so at the moment. Mokou nods her head, but despite the knowledge the Celestial has regarding her name the immortal doesn't bother to ask the same of her.

Mokou begins to walk away from Tenshi, saying to her with her hands folded into her pockets "I will leave you be now…Soon enough, I will make Kaguya pay for her defiling of Keine with blood and fire!"

However, as much as the immortal wanted to leave, in her mind Tenshi desired for Mokou to stick around as a sly smile crossed her face and the shade of her hat hid her mischievous glare. Mokou's appearance would prove most beneficial to the Celestial, for with her mind focusing on emotions she tries her hardest to deny, the best way to distract herself from those very thoughts would be to engage the immortal in a Spell Card duel. And the best part about this whole set-up is that Tenshi has the perfect way to instigate a battle with Mokou that would make her fight to the fullest extent of her rage.

"Actually, what if Kaguya isn't the one responsible for Keine's emotional shift?" Tenshi says the first words needed to start things off in an alluring tone, causing Mokou to take pause for a moment before turning to face the Celestial with a puzzled "What do you mean by that?" emerging from her lips.

Tenshi lays the tips of her fingers against her chest, grinning coyly at the immortal before saying in a nonchalant voice "I was the one responsible for changing Keine's personality!"

Mokou's expression immediately becomes dumbfounded for just a moment, her eyes twitching for a few seconds before she snaps and with fists tightly clenched she erupts in a flurry of fire and proclaims as her body rises up off of the ground "YOU LITTLE BITCH!" Her flames take on the majestic shape of a Phoenix, the crest of the wings singing the bamboo shoots around her as Tenshi grins brightly and relishes in the rage of the immortal.

However, the flames were problematic. If they were allowed to keep going, then there's no doubt that Kokoro would be gravely harmed. As Mokou declares "I will incinerate you where you stand!" the Celestial quickly works up a plan to deal with the problem.

"If you burn me, then Keine's personality will never be restored to her true self!" Tenshi declares through the loud crackling of the flames, the reasoning she gives causing Mokou to temporarily pause and consider what she was about to do. Through the shade across her eyes cast by the combination of her hair and flames, Mokou gives the Celestial an angered glare before lowering the intensity of her flames to the point that they were no longer a threat to the Bamboo Forest. While Mokou still floats in the air, Tenshi latches onto the lip of her hat with her right hand and lifts it up slightly, mentioning to the immortal "There's one chance for you to free her personality…As Gensokyo dictates, you must face me in a Spell Card duel to solve this problem."

From underneath her hat, Tenshi draws out a single card with a mysterious picture on it. Grasping it between her fingers, the Celestial says to Mokou "I have one card on me at this moment…Pick a card of your own and if you manage to defeat me I will change Keine back. But whatever card you choose, we should duel above the forest to avoid harming anyone who might be lost right now, yes?"

Mokou looks around to assess the damage caused by her initial outburst that made Tenshi make such a remark just now, and with a brief nod the immortal rises up into the darkening sky beyond the canopy of the Bamboo Forest. Stamping her foot against the ground, the Celestial draws a keystone out from the ground that she uses as a platform to follow the immortal into the sky, flipping her spell card around a few times as a mischievous smile crosses her face. Once the two duelists were high enough into the air, they met their glares halfway, Mokou reaching into her pants and pulling out a burning white spell card without so much as a second thought towards which one she planned to use.

Simultaneously, the two duelists called out the names of their spell cards "Immortal 'Fire Bird -Flying Phoenix-'!" "Earthquake 'Evacuation Along the Steep Path'!" Mokou's card is activated by her crushing it in a hand set ablaze with fire, while Tenshi draws the Hisou no Tsurugi and cuts the levitating card in mid-air.

Behind the immortal appears the glowing crimson outline of the Phoenix, while Tenshi keeps her blade drawn and grasps the top of it with both of her palms. Mokou unleashes the first salvo of Danmaku, a large outward ring of burning white bullet followed up with a collection of glowing light-red spheres shaped to look like a miniature bird that thrusts forward faster than the rest of the bullets and goes straight for the Celestial herself, the gathered spheres releasing a series of feather shaped Danmaku in the process along its path of flight.

Tenshi dodges the initial onslaught of Danmaku with a smile, her eyelids closing as she pounds the Hisou no Tsurugi into her keystone, the entire sky quaking as from high above descends a meteor storm of keystones towards the immortal. However, as she starts off her spell card the feather Danmaku from earlier stop their pause and move towards the Celestial, forcing her to fly around in an upward curve to avoid them as Mokou unleashes another ring of bullets and another miniature bird. Most of the Danmaku is destroyed as the keystones collide through them during their descent, but their destruction merely releases thick spheres of scarlet Danmaku that home in on Mokou and fly her way. The immortal barely notices this thanks to the bullets sharing a similar color tone to her own attacks, but when she does she swings to the left and glows brightly before unleashing seven rings worth of bullet-shaped Danmaku that spread across the sky like a burning sun. Mixed within these rings are more miniature birds composed of Danmaku, one being fired off in each direction but from differing heights to throw Tenshi off.

The sky quickly becomes filled with red bullets, all of them lighting the darkness aglow with crimson and scarlet as miniature explosions caused by the keystones impact with the thicker bullets mix in with the rest of the Danmaku and leave very little space for either duelist to move around in. Tenshi has the easier time of the two though, for she only has to pay attention to Mokou's bullets and make sure that none hit her, using whatever free periods she can to slam the Hisou no Tsurugi on top of her ride and summon forth even more keystones from the heavens to rain down upon the immortal.

The first hit is dealt to Mokou, who is struck with two of Tenshi's scarlet Danmaku bullets after one of the rings she fires off passes between some of the shots scattered from the destroyed keystones. The Danmaku makes her feel weaker, but doesn't do anything spectacular besides touch her and vanish. Meanwhile, the Celestial zips around the skies gracefully, sometimes leaping off of her keystone to dodge the Danmaki with ease. Despite not ever seeing this spell card in action before, Tenshi has already figured out the pattern of bullets and has learned of every single opportunity that she can take to use her spell card, all the while her mind remains merrily focused on the joyous sensation of aerial combat in contrast to the blinding anger of the immortal Phoenix.

Mokou is angered even further at the fact that none of her Danmaku bullets are even grazing the Celestial, but because she agreed to a one-card duel she cannot change her pattern even in the slightest. Two more bullets hit Mokou, followed up by three more after she launches a ring of Danmaku and another crimson bird at Tenshi. The Celestial's bullets packed the punch of fifty miniature ones that Mokou had felt when she faced a particular shrine maiden long ago, which means that it would only take a few more of the Celestial's Danmaku to finish her off. For Keine's sake though, the immortal Phoenix would refuse to bend to this impure being's will.

Mokou calmed down slightly, focusing more on the Celestial's bullets instead of her own and trying harder to send out her Danmaku to avoid destroying the keystones. With the wide range of the multi-directional bird Danmaku though, this would prove to be a difficult challenge for the immortal, but one she would surely have to triumph over if she wanted to free Keine. Tenshi notices Mokou's change in tactics, but despite a brief flinch of her expression from merry to shocked she grins once more and finds herself greatly unconcerned by the immortal's decision.

The keystone's from Tenshi's next assault slip between the Danmaku bullets just like Mokou intended for them to, a sly smile appearing on her face as the Celestial stands still on her method of transportation and a bird of Danmaku flies straight at her while the keystones fly behind the immortal. "Hehe…" The Celestial calmly chuckles, and with a swing of the Hisou no Tsurugi across the air the keystones behind Mokou detonate and release an instantaneous barrage of Danmaku that strikes the immortal on her back and causes all of her Danmaku to shatter apart as with widened eyes Mokou explodes in a flurry of burning clouds much to Tenshi's surprise.

"Whoa, hold on a moment…I thought she was immo-" Before the Celestial could finish her sentence, Mokou reforms from the burning clouds, all of which collapse inward and form into the shape of her body before it solidifies into the flesh, bone and muscle of the immortal Phoenix. Though she was defeated in the Danmaku duel, Mokou refused to give up, and as fire flares up intensely around her body the immortal declares "Do you think I'm just going to let you get away because you won a spell card duel?! I can still burn you to ashes with ease, and you would not live through it like Kaguya or I would!"

The Celestial rolls her eyes upon hearing the immortal's blind threat, and with a raise of the Hisou no Tsurugi towards the sky Tenshi draws Mokou's attention above herself where a large ring of keystones has suddenly appeared, and with a swing of her heavenly sword downward the keystones drop upon the surprised immortal and form a pile around her that drags her into the ground of the Bamboo Forest with a mighty crash that plows apart the dirt and shakes the very foundation of the area to its core. A plume of dust arises, helping the Celestial determine where the immortal impacted as she descends from the night sky and lands in front of the pile of keystones that Mokou had been buried under.

Tenshi couldn't see a single part of Mokou's body through the pile, the immortal having been buried so deeply within the keystones that most of her oxygen had been cut off. With vapid breathes, Mokou angrily says through what little cracks exist within the pile "I…I'm not afraid of your…s-stones….I…I…I will burn them…apart…"

The Celestial grins and after dispelling the Hisou no Tsurugi she holds her right hand against her hip and says to Mokou "You would need the heat of a thousand suns to burn apart the keystones, and if you go that far then you will burn Gensokyo to the ground and kill Keine in the process…All you can really do is let your oxygen run out and perish so you can come back to life outside of the keystones, and by then I will be long gone and you will never find me no matter how hard you try."

"Y…You won't get away with this…" Mokou mumbles, her breaths becoming more pained yet her desire to tell the Celestial off overriding all her pain as she goes on to mention "S…Someone…Will stop you…"

Tenshi lets out a light laugh through her grin, boasting to the buried immortal with her head held back and a haughty sneer on her face "And just who will stop me? The shrine maiden? The ordinary magician? Perhaps that half-ghost swordsman or the border manipulating witch? Hahaha…Foolish Mokou, none of them are capable of stopping me. In fact, no one in Gensokyo can defeat me! I am the strongest there is!" (Meanwhile at a mysterious location, Cirno sneezes)

Mokou grunts in pain and anger beneath the keystones, but before Tenshi can laugh at the immortal's misery she hears a meek groan coming from behind and turns to see Kokoro floating out of the pocket she was laying down in with a tired expression on her face and a Sleep mask floating beside her body before it swiftly switches to that of a Monkey upon seeing the Celestial standing before a pile of her keystones and a quiet noise seeping through the cracks. "…Tenshi, what is going on here?" Kokoro asks in an innocent, quiet voice. Mokou cannot hear the Youkai's voice, and Tenshi recognizes this upon failing to hear a reaction from her.

Thus, after taking a couple steps forward to put herself by Kokoro's side Tenshi puts on her false act of kindness and rests her left arm along the Youkai's back, laying her right hand out towards the keystone pile before lying quietly to Kokoro with "Somebody sent an assassin to try and kill us. I defended you to the best of my ability, but the person is immortal and cannot be permanently stopped."

Kokoro is confused by Tenshi's explanation, and quickly asks with her head tilted to look at the Celestial "Why would someone try to kill us?"

Tenshi responds to the Youkai with "Remember what I said early about how people wouldn't be too receptive to their true emotions being released? This assassination attempt is merely one of the ways the people of Gensokyo have chosen to react to the changes we have begun to make…"

Kokoro trembles slightly upon hearing this news, the mask beside her changing to the wrinkled face of a blue man with puckered, frightened lips and green eyes, this mask representing the fear that the Youkai is now experiencing. Tenshi notices this fear, and with false reassurance she kneels in front of Kokoro and says with their glances meeting "Kokoro…I know you are scared of dying…But that's why I am here. I am your guardian angel, here to escort you through this sacred mission to fix the cynical ways of Gensokyo via emotional release. So long as I stand beside you, no one will harm a single hair on your body."

Tenshi's words, however false they may have been, were believed by Kokoro instantly and the Mask of Fear is replaced with the Ko-omote mask of joy. The Celestial rises, satisfied that her manipulations are still taking effect. There was still one issue that needed to be dealt with though…

Turning to face the pile of keystones, Tenshi points with one hand towards it and thinks to herself _"I can't take the risk of her telling anyone…One person I can handle, but if everyone rallies together everything will be ruined." _

She then says to Kokoro "Let us dissuade the nay-sayers…Change our assassins emotions to make her unable to follow us ever again…Perhaps make her tired or lazy, its up to you."

Turning away from the pile of keystones to let Kokoro take of business herself, Tenshi grins and glances over her right shoulder as the Youkai takes out her Mask of Sleep and despite the weariness of awakening she uses her powers on the person inside of the pile, unaware that said person was suffocating because of the Celestial's efforts. Before the grip of Kokoro's powers take hold as she simultaneously runs out of oxygen, Mokou thinks to herself _"Keine…I'm sorry…" _

Mokou's body dies, and the keystones above her crumble. However, Kokoro's powers managed to work just in time and Tenshi quickly turns her around before she sees the immortal being revive once more. With a smile on her face, the Celestial says to the Youkai "Good work Kokoro. So, are you ready to go help other people out in the brisk of night?"

Kokoro flinches in surprise upon hearing what time of day it was. She hadn't actually taken a moment to feel the atmosphere or look up into the sky. Pulling away from Tenshi, the Youkai mentions stoically "I have to get back to the Human Village. I have to perform another dance for the people tonight."

"…Oh." Tenshi was partially disappointed by the fact that she'd have to stop transforming people's emotions for today, but at the same time she figured a break to watch Kokoro dance again under the pale moonlight would be a perfect way to relax and prepare herself for the next day. "Alright then Kokoro, lets head on back for today." The Celestial pats the young Youkai on the head, for once giving her an honest, approving smile before they both fly off into the night away from the Bamboo Forest.

Mokou revives, her body lying on top of the keystone pile as she lets out a lazy yawn and stretches her arms out, smacking her lips a few times as a figure slowly walks into view and observes the changes in the immortal's emotional state and personality. "…So even the famed Hourai Immortals are being affected…This isn't good. But there's something strange about the Celestial's actions that I can't quite put my finger on yet…Before I act, I must continue to observe…" The figure then vanishes from the Bamboo Forest in a puff of smoke…

_Next Time: The Tiny Night Parade_


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **

Surprise! Early chapter release this week. I dunno, I just whipped this up early on in the week and decided to do an early release just because. Next week's update will be on Thursday as usual though, just to let you know.

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Accursed Oni**

The night sky has come to cover Gensokyo, peace spreading out across the lands as a bountiful array of evening stars light up the sky alongside the bright crescent moon. While most of the people are quieting down, that fact cannot be applied to the people at the Hakurei Shrine. Marisa has been trying her damnedest for the last few hours to motivate Reimu to investigate the incident. There are Danmaku stars impaled against the walls of the shrine, a hole in the ground to the left of the side-lying Reimu, and a couple scorched rings surrounding massive holes chunked into the deck that the shrine maiden is lying on. Marisa is panting madly, her mini-hakkero grasped in her right fingers as she mumbles in a pissed off tone "Damn it Reimu…Get your ass up already!"

Reimu rolls onto her stomach, letting out a light, woozy yawn as she takes another bowl of sake and sips it down quickly. Once she flings the bowl away and hears it break, she says to Marisa "…Marisa, you are going to have to pay for all these damages." She sounded barely interested in enforcing that decree to the Ordinary Magician, and just as quickly as she sipped down the sake Reimu lets out a long yawn and smacks her lips before falling asleep right in front of a twitching Marisa.

The Ordinary Magician lowers her mini-hakkero, dropping it from her grasp as her eyes widen and her move lowers agape. "Are you kidding me?" She says in a flat voice, and as Reimu's loud grating snoring fills her eardrums Marisa slaps her forehead and decides with a frazzled expression "…You know what, I'll try again tomorrow." Sweeping her mini-hakkero off the ground, Marisa puts it in her dress pocket and with a stamp of her foot calls her broomstick up and has it glide underneath her body. With her buttocks cushioned on the stick, the Ordinary Magician takes one last glance at the sleeping Reimu and says to herself "What am I going to do with you?" Before flying off into the night sky, wondering just how she ended up being the mature one in this situation.

Outside the Human Village, Tenshi and Kokoro can be seen slowly flying towards the stage where the Youkai performs her dance titled 'Hopeless Masquerade' to the adoring audience. The Celestial, riding her usual keystone, folded her arms as a merry smile crossed her face from the amount of fun she had today, the highlight being the complete defeat she handed the immortal Mokou just minutes ago. _"Oh man…I wonder what I should do tomorrow? Should I have Kokoro take me to new places, or should I take her to the people who tried to interfere with my plans once before? There are so many possibilities available to me, and so many ways that I can go about this that it just feels me with so much ecstasy!"_

As Tenshi smiled, she was unaware of Kokoro's presence as the Youkai floated around the side of the Celestial's body and hovered in front of her, her eyes innocently staring at her grinning face as she proceeded to ask quietly "Tenshi…"

It takes a moment for Tenshi to realize that Kokoro was addressing her, her grin instantly fading as she looked down and noticed that they were very close to the stage, and after a couple of seconds she stopped her keystone as the Youkai in turn stopped flying backwards. "What is it Kokoro?" Tenshi asked sincerely.

Kokoro bobbed up and down in mid-air, staring straight at the Celestial as her eyebrows momentarily raise and the Monkey mask appears beside her face before finally responding to Tenshi's inquiry with "I know you saw my dance once before…But will you please stick around and watch me dance again?"

"Huh?" Tenshi was both puzzled and taken aback by Kokoro's humble request, a light blush appearing in her cheeks as she unfurled her arms and asked her "Wait…Why do you want me to watch you perform the same dance?"

Kokoro shakes her head twice, her eyes staying open the entire time as she starts to say during the second shake "No Tenshi, I'm not going to perform the same dance. There will be a few differences to this one that I want to try out for the humans…And I figure that you would be the best person to judge those changes since you are so kind and honest, Tenshi."

The Celestial flinches greatly, her body nearly tumbling off of the keystone thanks to Kokoro's misaimed compliment before she catches herself and straightens her posture, coughing humbly with her left fist held against her lips as she goes on to say to the Youkai "Well…I'm flattered that you want me to judge your dance Kokoro, but…"

Kokoro's eyelids sink slightly, that very small shift in her expression showing approaching disappointment for what Tenshi was about to say, and quickly upon noticing this the Celestial moves her limbs off to the side of her body and changes her words with a smile on her face "But I suppose it wouldn't hurt for me to take time out of our mission to help you out in bettering your dance."

Kokoro gives Tenshi a light smile, the mask beside her changing to Ko-omote as she stoically says to the Celestial "Thank you…Now, I must finish preparations for tonight."

With those words the Youkai descends towards the stage, her dress puffing outward from the updraft of air her descent creates. Tenshi lets out a light sigh, her face appearing flustered as she squints her eyelids tightly and thought to herself _"Geez…Did I really just submit to Kokoro's wishes?" _A light blush appears in her cheeks once more, and as she relaxes her expression the Celestial continues on with _"…Still…I guess it wouldn't hurt me to comment on her dance…Lets see what she's got up her sleeves."_

Tenshi floats back, positioning herself in a folded sitting pose on top of her keystone a fair distance away from the stage, her head poking down as she folds her arms and notices the humans gathering in front of the stage to watch Kokoro's dance be performed. A few minutes pass as Kokoro stands in the dark, illuminated only by the pale blue glow of her mask. The audience settles into place, their numbers smaller due to the late of night leading to there being many children resting in their beds. This didn't bother the Youkai…In fact, she honestly expected a smaller crowd, so disappointment is not a mask she wears at the moment.

The murmur of the crowd slowly dies down as Kokoro parts her dress and bows before the audience, welcoming them to her dance in a stoic voice as two masks are summoned forth, carrying in their mouths two fans that she hadn't used during the morning dance. The bottom of the fans are grasped in her hands, drawn across the air in two arcs as the mask fade away and their flames follow the path of Kokoro's swinging arms as she folds them on opposite sides of her body and creaks her eyelid open. As she bends down slightly, a few masks etch words in blue flames across the sky, the crackling fire reflecting in the eyes of the humans and Tenshi in the form of the title "Hopeless Masquerade".

With two drums being banged upon in the background by a couple of masks, the dance begins, this one having a more mystifying and spiritual feel to it as not only do her masks portray the characters of "Hopeless Masquerade" but a few take on the form of orbs of fire and changes their colors to depict streams of Danmaku specific to each 'player' in the dance. The stage is filled with bright lights, all of them being just the right luminosity to allow the audience to follow along with them getting just the right chance to glimpse at Kokoro's own dance, which is slower and more melodic in nature than the one she did in the morning.

Tenshi is entranced by the dance, this time even more so than she was before. The introduction was more elegant and composed, the Danmaku displayed was beautiful and nearly realistic to the eyes of one who knew how to use it. The Celestial smiled, her legs kicking against the front of her keystone merrily as the dance continued to go on. She was really into it, saying not a single word as everything went on without interruption. After a few more seconds of watching though, Tenshi hears a light drunken hiccup, thinking not much of it at first until a voice speaks directly towards her "So…Enjoying the dance, are you?"

It takes a moment for the Celestial to react, seeing as her focus is almost completely invested into Kokoro's dance, but as she hums happily at the question she realizes just who is speaking to her and her face immediately goes pale with fear. Quickly flipping her body to the right, Tenshi nearly tumbles off the back of her keystone upon seeing the being who called to her. It was a little girl roughly half the height of the Celestial…But don't let the shortness of this being deceive you. This was Suika Ibuki, a mighty oni and one of the legendary Four Devas of the Mountain. You can distinguish Suika from the rest of her kin not by the two straight ribbon decorated horns on her head or the three chain accessories attached to her belt, but rather via the tattered pale pink blouse, long purple and pink shirt, brown eyes and long ruffled ginger hair. As Suika laid flat on the air she had grasped in her hand her signature purple gourd, which deposits an infinite amount of whatever sake she desires straight into her open gullet.

The oni takes one large gulp now, her cheeks becoming flushed with crimson as a joyous smile syncs with her glazed eyes and creates an overall demeanor of merriment. Tenshi, on the other hand, is shivering in fear of Suika's unexpected appearance, and for good reason too. Despite her bravado against the immortal Mokou, the oni was perhaps the only person in all of Gensokyo who could soundly defeat her in battle by herself, and if Suika's intentions were to interfere with her plans with Kokoro then the Celestial's fun had just ended at this very moment.

Suika glances to the left, aware all too well of Tenshi's fears. However, instead of taunting the Celestial, the oni smiled and said kindly "I asked you a question Tenshi…Are you enjoying the dance?"

The oni's voice was childish, unbefitting the massive strength that little body of hers held within, but each word struck a deeper feeling of concern into the Celestial's body. Even so, Tenshi gathered up enough courage to respond, turning the keystone back towards the dance with her eyes glancing over at Suika as she says "I-I'm enjoying it…Yeah…"

Suika did not like the Celestial's response, not because she said she liked the dance, but rather because of the sheer amount of hesitation but into saying it. "Geez, you are such a downer…Are you really that frightened around me just because I kicked your butt that one time?"

The oni gets right to the point of the matter, targeting Tenshi's fears and insecurities in such a manner that Tenshi reacts via switching her full attention towards Suika with a nervous glance. Suika sits up, crossing her legs and dropping her gourd between them with a light clench of her muscles keeping it from falling to the ground. With her eyes still glazed as she shuts her eyelids and a smile brimming across your face, the oni goes on to say "I'm not going to kick your butt, so just relax…Unless you are causing trouble for Gensokyo again." The end of her sentence is said in a rather serious voice, followed by a piercing glare between a slit in her eyelids.

Tenshi shivers, but Suika quickly lets out a drunken hiccup and laughs at how ridiculous her threat sounded, going on to say to the nervous Celestial "Hahaha…That was a joke Tenshi! Seriously, who am I to impede on someone else's fun?"

Tenshi lets out a momentary sigh of relief between her lips, and as Suika turns towards the dance of the stage she says to the Celestial "So…Did you come down here just to see this Kokoro girl's dance?"

The Celesital, not believing the oni's words fully, quickly and honestly blurts out with her head turned away from Suika "Yes."

The oni tilts her head to the side and notices Tenshi's avoidance, looking back down at the stage as she grasps her gourd and takes another drink, bits of sake dribbling out of the sides of her mouth that are quickly licked up with one sweep of the tongue to avoid them going to waste. Suika proceeds to say "I must say that I really like this dance. The fake Danmaku reminds me a lot of sparkling fireworks in the night sky, and the way the Youkai dances makes me feel as though I am in the middle of a grand party. For one with little ways to express emotions, this Kokoro lass definitely knows how to express many feelings at once through dance…So Tenshi, what is your opinion on the dance…Or more specifically, your feelings on Kokoro herself?"

The Celestial's face becomes bright red with an embarrassed blush upon hearing Suika's rather piercing second inquiry, and after moments of reclusive silence the oni goes on to say "You know Tenshi, I may be incredibly drunk at all times, but that doesn't make me an idiot. I know what you are feeling right now, perhaps even more than you wish to admit you know about yourself…"

Her voice, despite its child-like tone, contained an air of seriousness that Tenshi definitely didn't expect to hear coming from the jolly oni. Suika took another drink of sake, this one being shorter than the last as she proceeds to clench the gourd between her legs once more and turns her body around to face the Celestial directly. "And…I also know what you have been up to in Gensokyo today."

Tenshi flinches in surprise, her keystone turning upon her command to face the oni as Suika smiles at her. The Celestial reacts in shock, stuttering out the words "H-How d-do you know?" in disbelief before Suika lets out a merry laugh and goes on to say "It wasn't that hard to figure out…I mean you and Kokoro did kind of fly off from the Korindou not long after I saw that shop keeper and Hakutaku cursed lady running through town. Putting two and two together is easy when you see both of these happen in rapid succession…"

Tenshi scowls, angered by the fact that her fun is more than likely at an end now that Suika has pegged her as the culprit behind the emotion changes in Gensokyo thus far. However, that assumption would soon be proven wrong as the oni goes on to say "Hey, do you forget that I just said that I don't like spoiling someone else's fun?"

The Celestial flinches in surprise, stuttering out a response of "W-What? But you know about my plan…Aren't you going to foil it like you did before?"

Suika lets out a jolly laugh, her drunken blushing face pulling back as she proceeds to say to Tenshi "Is your memory of events foggy or something? I never did anything to stop your plans last time…Sure I kicked your butt once and gathered a few people to Bhavaagra to have them try and kick your butt as well, but that last part was mainly for my own amusement and wasn't the direct solution of the whole incident. Let me reassure you right now…As easy as it would be for me to stop your plans, that would just leave a bad taste in my mouth, and considering I need this tongue of mine to enjoy sake I wouldn't want to sully it by interfering in your fun."

Tenshi was relieved, but not for long as Suika proceeded to say in a firm voice while taking her gourd and balancing it on her back as she laid flat on the air and folded her arms below and beside her head, saying with a merry expression on her face "However, I want you to heed my warning. Know when to back off with your little acts of mischief Tenshi…Its all fun and games until someone gets severely harmed or you break the innocence of an oblivious little girl. Not to mention the fact that you didn't exactly leave a good impression on a lot of Gensokyo the last time…If you go too far, you'll risk isolating yourself from all others, leaving you alone in the world without anyone to party or have fun with…"

Tenshi firmly glares at the oni, saying in a fierce voice that denies all of her inner feelings at that very moment "And why do you think I care about having friends?!"

Suika grins, staring at the Celestial with glazed eyes as she responds to that angered inquiry with a calm "Because its as I said…I know what you are feeling more than you know about those feelings yourself. Listen Tenshi…Gensokyo is a wonderful place to live in. There are an unlimited amount of ways to have fun and cure boredom besides going around and causing incidents, and all you have to do to have such fun is not go around and piss the wrong people off."

Suika sits upright, flexing her back upward briefly to knock the gourd in the air so she can catch it after it falls, and after taking a quick gulp the oni goes on to say "Well…It seems that the dance is nearing its end, so I shall take my leave…Before I go though, I have two more things I want to say to you…"

Tenshi, still suspicious of the oni's motives, glares at her nervously and asks with a stutter "W-What?"

"First, when you inevitably do go and screw everything up, just know that I will be the one dragging your body back to Bhavaagra. Second…Be warned, for I am but the first of three who will visit you. I represent your problems past, and eventually you will be visited by beings representing problems present and problems future…"

Tenshi blinks her eyelids twice, puzzled by the cryptic meaning of Suika's words as she blankly asks "Wait a second…What are you talking about?"

Suika closes her eyelids and shrugs her shoulders, saying nonchalantly to the Celestial "Beats me…I just remember one day trying to break the fourth wall with my strength on a whim and happened to grab a script for this story. It mentioned something about you being visited by two more beings who went by the titled I said just now but didn't give any exact names so don't bother asking me about them…Either way, just forget I said anything in this last paragraph, otherwise this story will get way too meta for its own good."

The Celestial blinks twice, and just like that the previous conversation is dropped from her mind as Suika goes on to say "So yeah…Have whatever fun you can while it lasts Tenshi, but just heed my warnings if you know what's good for your well-being."

With that, the oni is covered in a puff of smoke. She didn't vanish, that's not one of her powers, she simply shrunk down to ant size along with her gourd and dropped to the ground to avoid being detected. Tenshi is left in the air frustrated by every single one of Suika's words, but before she scowls she is interrupted by a meek voice beside her "Tenshi…Did you enjoy my dance?"

The Celestial calms down and puts on a puzzled face as she turns to face Kokoro, who has risen up in the air in front of her with the Monkey mask floating beside her face. With a brief glance down, Tenshi realizes that the dance was at an end, and because of Suika's sudden appearance she was barely able to see what the Youkai had done beyond the introduction. It was at this point the Celestial would have to lie, but this time a bit of genuine guilt clenched her heart as she said to Kokoro "I'm sorry Kokoro…A Celestial Envoy came down to check up on me and I was forced to give a report on my progress…I couldn't see much of your dance…"

The Youkai's mask changes to that of the old woman Uba, depicted her brief feeling of melancholy until Kokoro perks up to the best of her ability and the mask subsequently changes to the Ko-omote and she says stoically "That's alright Tenshi…You can just see the next dance."

Tenshi is happy to hear a lack of disappointment in Kokoro's voice, and goes on to say "Yeah, I'll definitely be watching both of your dances tomorrow, don't worry about it."

Kokoro shakes her head slightly, confusing the Celestial as the Youkai goes on to mention "Actually, I canceled tomorrow morning's dance."

"Huh?" The Celestial was taken aback by this and became curious to know Kokoro's reasoning behind this sudden move, expressing said curiosity in the form of a simple "How come?"

"Isn't it obvious Tenshi? I want to get a head start on helping the people of Gensokyo…It felt really good to help people out today, and I want to see if I can liberate others from oppression like Sanae or try to change people's worries peacefully so assassins don't ever try to come after us again…We can do it Tenshi, we can make Gensokyo a happy place filled with people following their true emotions…I believe we can."

Kokoro's faith in this lie of a goal was surprising to Tenshi, who with a nervous expression hesitantly says to the Youkai "Y-Yeah…We can definitely help Gensokyo out, no doubt about it…" The oblivious Youkai doesn't notice Tenshi's blush within the darkness, so her immediate reaction is to say "I'm going to go to sleep now Tenshi…I wish you the best of dreams tonight, and the best of luck for us both tomorrow."

Kokoro nods her head and descends onto the stage. With a mask of weariness beside her face, the Youkai quickly and nonchalantly floats onto her back, closing her eyelids tightly and swiftly falling asleep alone in the cold of night in the middle of the dark, empty Human Village. Tenshi stares down at Kokoro to the best of her ability, a pitiful frown crossing her face as she sees that the Youkai lacks a place to call her home…She was a vagrant, and upon realizing this guilt once again grips her heart.

She hates this feeling inside the pit of her heart, this empty feeling that refuses to go away inside of her. Did Suika's words actually hold some merit of truth to them? As these thoughts that went beyond the extent of considering Kokoro to be a tool plagued the Celestial, she could only curse the oni inside of her mind…And she would have to live with this struggle and pain for the whole entire night, for the one accursed thing about all Celestials is that they were incapable of sleeping, even in the darkest of nights. But deep down, Tenshi knew that all this pain will be worth it once she is done with Gensokyo's emotions…That is what she keeps telling herself to help her survive this imperishable night…

_Next Time: The Field of Flowers_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Busy Days on the Sanzu**

Morning rises on Gensokyo once more, just like it has for thousands of years before and will for millions of years after. The sunlight glistens the dew drops formed via the early day dampness, and the yawns of many humans echo throughout the Human Village as they awaken from their nightly sleep. In the very center of town, Kokoro herself begins to murmur awake, her sleep long and prosperous as evidenced by the merry little squeak of a yawn she lets out as she creaks her pale eyelids open and slowly lifts her entire body upwards, her lips smacking twice as she floats above the top of the stage and the puffs in her skirt flap out and in a few times in accordance with her rising and lowering body.

She didn't seem too affected by her awakening, as the mask that expressed her tired demeanor was gone and replaced with the Ko-omote mask of joy.

"Good morning Kokoro…" A familiar voice calls out to the Youkai, causing her to turn and see Tenshi sitting with legs folded on top of her keystone, her left palm resting under her chin as a stressed expression stretched across her face and a light sigh is released from her lips.

The stress from last nights concerns has really affected Tenshi's physical well-being alongside her mental one, so much in fact that she appears tired despite not getting even a single second of sleep. Kokoro notices this with a hint of concern in her eyes, and asks the Celestial kindly "Are you ok Tenshi? Did you get a good night's sleep at all?"

Two questions, only one of which the Celestial would be able to answer truthfully to the Youkai. With her eyelids shut irritatingly towards the oni for what she said last night, Tenshi mentioned casually to Kokoro "Celestials don't sleep Kokoro…We have no reason to do so once we've ascended to Bhava-agra…As far as my condition goes, I'm fine, honestly."

Kokoro was barely reassured by Tenshi's wearily spoken words, and with her body inching closer the Youkai leans forward slightly and examines the Celestial's body much her surprise upon opening her eyelids. After a nervous grin and a dropping of her arms against the top of her legs, the Celestial goes on to assure Kokoro in a more confident voice "I'm serious Kokoro, don't worry about how I'm feeling. You should be more concerned about your own well-being…"

Tenshi stands up off of her keystone, looking straight at the puzzled Kokoro as she blinks her eyelids once and says stoically "…My condition? Why should I worry about my own condition?" She was once again taking an oblivious tone of voice with the Celestial, but this time Tenshi was a bit bothered by it especially since Kokoro clearly knew nothing about illnesses or other things detrimental to one's body.

"Don't you know that you can get sick just laying down out in the cold? Your body's immune system becomes weaker when you subject it to harsh conditions." Tenshi speaks from her knowledge of the human body that was useful to her from before she became a Celestial, but Kokoro merely tilts her head in the face of the information and says to her "Huh? What does it mean to be 'sick'?"

Tenshi is surprised once again by Kokoro's response, but at this has to remind herself that despite the human-like exterior Kokoro was a Youkai. By all means, their immune systems are probably strong enough to fight off all manners of diseases that would hurt the humans in this village. As the Celestial lets out a light "Tsk" and turns her head away from Kokoro she thinks to herself _"There I go thinking of Kokoro as something besides a tool…Get your head back in the game Tenshi, you're going to screw everything up at this rate."_

"Tenshi…What does it mean to be 'sick'?" With a voice of stoic concern before a repeat of her inquiry, Kokoro moves another inch closer to Tenshi, the Celestial having a brief panic attack and backing up a couple inches away much to the Youkai's puzzlement. With a shake of her head and a fold of her arms in front of her chest the Celestial says to Kokoro "Forget I said anything, alright? Lets move the discussion towards where we plan to go next to help people out."

The Youkai is still a bit curious to know what it meant to be 'sick', but dropped the matter for now with a meek "Oh…"

"…Ummm…" With fingers placed below her lips, Kokoro looked up towards the sky and tried to think of a good place or person to help out. A snap in her mind and a lower of her fingers precedes the Youkai's response of "Well, there is the ferry lady of the Sanzu River…She's rather lazy and has caused a bit of trouble by not doing her job in the past. Maybe we can go motivate her by changing her emotional state?"

Tenshi recognized the person Kokoro mentioned via that short description. Actually, the shinigami known as Komachi Onozuka almost proved to be one of the Celestial's biggest problems the last time around, so the very thought about messing with her emotions via Kokoro brought a brief smile across her face that she also used as a means of showing enjoyment to the Youkai about the idea. "Well that will help Gensokyo a lot if even one of the shinigami take their duties more seriously. Sure, lets head to the Sanzu River next."

Tenshi flips her ponytail to the right and leaps back onto the keystone, looking down at Kokoro with awaiting eyes as the Youkai quietly mentions in a warning voice "I should let you know though that we will have to cross a field of sunflowers before reaching the river, and that there is a particularly strong Youkai guarding the sunflowers that may attack us if we piss her off."

The Celestial scoffs at the warning, rolling her eyes as she replies casually "You shouldn't have to worry about any Youkai. I can handle anyone that comes after us, and so long as they don't find you we can always change their emotions to get them out of our way."

Tenshi waves her right hand in the air enthusiastically, asking Kokoro to hurry up as she flies up into the sky ready to head towards the Sanzu River. The Youkai ascends from the top of her stage, joining beside the Celestial as they head north away from the Human Village. While the warm morning air and breezes blow against the two, Tenshi turns her head slightly to face Kokoro with arms folded and asks her "Say, you said we need to head through a sunflower field to reach the Sanzu River…Why is that? Can't we just fly over it?"

Kokoro twists her body and flies sideways while positioned straight up, responding to Tenshi's inquiry with "I heard from someone that the way to the Sanzu River was sealed up by the Yamas after a particular incident to prevent people from invading her territory, and she specifically placed the only entrance to the Sanzu behind the sunflower field so people would have to encounter the Youkai I mentioned before in order to have a chance to entering."

"So couldn't we just fly over the field and descend near the entrance?" Tenshi points out nonchalantly, to which Kokoro responds with "Because we could risk being seen by the Eyes of the Yamas hidden within the barrier if we get too close."

"And just who is this Yamas character? Probably nobody important…" Tenshi mentions with an air of no concern surrounding her as she lays back against her keystone.

Kokoro's eyebrows arch downward slightly to express a more serious atmosphere as she goes on to say "The Yamas is one of the almighty judges assigned to Gensokyo to observe the black and white morality of the world. Her law is absolute, her judgment the only truth…You cannot escape the one of a thousand lectures once she hunts you down."

Tenshi, who is currently busy picking her nose with little interest in the foreboding words of the Youkai, says to Kokoro nonchalantly "Wow, she sounds like a total stiff. Maybe if we see her we can change her attitude as well."

Kokoro blinks twice, surprised by the brash determination of the Celestial as she mutters stoically "O-Ok Tenshi, if you think we can change the Yamas herself, then I'll certainly try."

Turning away from the unconcerned Celestial, Kokoro faces the ground and notices that beyond the mountain they just passed over is a large field of black dots and yellow circles that are blurred together across a grassy plain. This was the sunflower field that the two had to cross on the ground in order to reach the Sanzu River. Pointing downward to grab the attention of the Celestial as she continues to lean on her keystone, Kokoro watches as Tenshi sits up straight and removes her hand from her nose. With a little command in the form of a tap of her right palm against the top of her stone, Tenshi descends alongside Kokoro into the tail end of the field.

As they neared the sunflowers though, the Celestial was shocked by how tall they were. The very bottom of the petals themselves were so high up in the air that it would take someone three times her height to touch them from the ground. The flowers themselves were big enough to seat an adult sized human, and that was just at their smallest. The very thought of entering this sunflower field was both nerve-wracking and yet exciting to the Celestial, but she knew in the end that this was only a minor distraction until they reach the true goal of the Sanzu River.

Entering the thicket of the sunflowers, Tenshi turns towards the floating Kokoro and politely asks her "Stay as far behind me as you possibly can Kokoro. You can't use your powers if someone sees you, so as long as I take the lead you can bail me out if things go wrong for whatever reason."

As the Celestial turns back around and starts to head through the sunflower field Kokoro is quick to point out "But what if the powerful Youkai here ambushes me from behind?"

"Then we'll team up and kick her ass, shouldn't be that hard to beat her 2v1." Tenshi swiftly replies with a nonchalant, haughty shrug of her shoulders. "…But what if she is stronger than both of us?" Kokoro asks in turn.

This time the Celestial turns around and glares at Kokoro fiercely, saying slowly and irritatingly with a light scowl on her face "Then we just high-tail it to the Sanzu River and ignore the Youkai completely. By the sounds of things this Youkai is simply a guardian the Yamas hired to keep people out…Its not like we will find this Youkai directly in front of the entrance, right?"

"…I suppose not." Kokoro responds, taking a moment to gulp at Tenshi's sudden change in temperament. The Celestial notices this meek response and lets out a light sigh, pulling her head back and nervously rubbing the back of it while saying in an apologetic tone "Sorry for snapping at you Kokoro, but I'm kind of surprised you don't have a little more faith in my abilities today."

"Well you just seem a little out of it today Tenshi. I'm concerned for your well-being just like you were mine earlier." Kokoro honestly answers, and swiftly does a blush appear in Tenshi's cheeks as she stutters with a withdrawn pose "K-Kokoro you idiot, I'm the only one allowed to be concerned about one's well-being here! I can handle myself just fine, and I'm telling you again that I'm not distracted by anything."

Kokoro tilts her head at the end of Tenshi's sentence, saying with a puzzled expression "Huh? I never said anything about you being distracted…"

Tenshi's blush becomes darker in color as a nervous sweat trickles across her face. The Celestial flips around, embarrassed at what she let slip out as she repeatedly swears at the oni in her mind. When Kokoro asks once more if Tenshi is alright, the Celestial quickly pounds her chest with her right fist and extends her pointer finger on ahead, saying with no regard towards the prior conversation "We are wasting time standing around here. Lets head towards the Sanzu River, pronto!" Tenshi then begins to make her way through the sunflowers, a confused Kokoro floating quietly behind after a momentary pause.

The thick stems of the sunflowers is difficult to navigate through due to how close together they all are, and Tenshi quickly becomes annoyed with having to push against them with her arms only for a couple to swing back her way and smack her aside the body. The Celestial growls, the anger in her growl becoming more prominent with every step she takes while Kokoro, with her smaller body, is able to have an easier time navigating the field as she follows Tenshi towards the entrance of the Sanzu River. They keep moving straight, for even the slightest change in direction will get them lost, especially since the sky above was not a good indicator about just where they were in the field.

"Gah, this is getting ridiculous!" In a moment of absolute frustration, Tenshi draws the Hisou on Tsurugi and immediately cuts down a few of the sunflowers in front of her, opening the way to a lone patch of flowerless land that the Celestial takes great pleasure in entering and letting out a heavy breath of relief as her frustrations momentarily subside and leave her feeling glad to have a break from this annoying field of sunflowers. "God…What type of Youkai could ever love these shitty flowers?"

The quiet complaint of the Celestial is unheard by Kokoro, who just now had arrived at the point of the field that Tenshi has cut down, and upon seeing the damage done the Youkai raises her eyebrows and the Monkey mask appears beside her face. "…Tenshi, what have you done?" She asks in stoic disbelief.

The Celestial turns her head to the right to glance at Kokoro while planting her sword in the ground with her right hand, saying in an unconcerned voice to the Youkai "I made it easier for us to cross the field…"

Tenshi notices Kokoro slowly withdrawing into the field with a partially nervous look on her face. But before she can do anything about it, the Celestial feels a powerful unease creeping up the left side of her body, the sensation growing ever stronger as she hears someone slowly approaching from the left. _"I-Is this the Youkai Kokoro warned me about? This presence is like nothing I've ever felt before!" _Panic grips Tenshi's mind as she turns to the left and draws the Hisou no Tsurugi from the ground.

From the sunflowers slowly emerged a shadowed female Youkai that was only a couple of inches shorter than the goddess Kanako but was still imposing in height for the small Tenshi. The being with the slender, elegant figure wore a plain white shirt that kept her large rounded chest in place, the shirt itself being covered by a loose red plaid waistcoat. Draped to the tops of her sandaled feet is a skirt with a similar pattern and coloring as the waistcoat, a button surrounded by white fluffy petals attached to the end of the trail of yellow buttons along the right side of her skirt. Twirling in her hands is a pure white umbrella whose length is roughly ¾ that of her body, the top spread out enough to cast shade over her as she walks towards the Celestial with her wavy, shoulder-length hair flowing in tune with the gentle breeze and her eyelids closed in a way that project a false sense of serenity over the being's body. Through this encounter Tenshi would never learn the name of this person…This was Yuuka Kazami, quite possibly one of the strongest Youkai in all of Gensokyo, hyperbole be damned.

The Celestial could tell just from a brief glance that this Youkai was not one to mess with, and the fact that they were able to so perfectly hide their anger behind a calm expression shook Tenshi to the very core of her being. But what Tenshi couldn't understand is just why the Youkai was angry, and at the same time she was concerned that Kokoro would become a target of the Youkai's rage if things went terribly wrong.

However, if she were to even gesture towards Kokoro that would be enough to give away her position, so all Tenshi could do was stand still with a shiver in her spine as Yuuka stopped a couple feet in front of her in all of her imposing, elegant glory. Yuuka tilted her head down slightly, the very thought of the Youkai opening her eyelids and revealing her emotions in full was enough to get Tenshi's heart pumping as she slowly tried to retreat with the Hisou no Tsurugi pointed up at Yuuka's face.

The Youkai doesn't flinch, but she stops twirling her umbrella around and says in a mature, calm voice "Tell me…What brings you to my Garden of the Sun?" She asks this simple question to the person standing in front of her.

Tenshi stutters, her haughty demeanor crumbling as she tries to bravely say to the Youkai "I'm just passing through here to go to the Sanzu River." She uses a singular pronoun to prevent Yuuka from learning of Kokoro's existence.

"…Is that so?" Yuuka responds, her fingers delicately twirling the umbrella in her hands around one time slowly before she proceeds to ask in a foreboding accent "I am curious to know…What is your opinion on flowers?"

Tenshi smiles, saying with her lying tongue "I think flowers are great! Are you a flower fanatic too?" She also pretends to be oblivious towards the Youkai's preferences in hopes of fooling her, but the intensity of Yuuka's anger increases around her despite the serenity in her expression being exemplified even more in the smile appearing on her face.

"You can say that, yes…After all, how can one not find flowers fascinating? They come in many shapes and colors, sizes and heights and with them comes many different feelings and stories, all of them woven together in a bountiful, radiant garden that paints landscapes and dictates the history and movement of both nature and life itself…To pluck a flower from the ground is the equivalent of robbing the world of its well-earned history, and the most despicable of people are the ones who casually do this without a second thought to the rippling consequences their actions bring to the world."

Yuuka says these insightful words with the same serene demeanor and calm, mature voice that she has used thus far, and despite the air of anger floating within this Youkai Tenshi happily chuckles and says another sharp-tongued lie "Yes, it would be quite a shame if someone were to harm even a single petal on these wonderful flowers."

Yuuka pauses for a moment, the air becoming thick with a foreboding chill as she slowly creaks her eyelids open and Tenshi sees the crimson eyes between the thin slits that project a piercing glare through her soul. Yuuka tosses away all forms of calmness at this point, her voice taking on a deathly vibe as she says harshly to the Celestial "Do you take me for a sort of fool? You think I cannot recognize one who has defiled the flowers in my garden? The blood of the sunflowers taints your strange blade, Celestial…"

Yuuka takes her left hand up to her umbrella and folds it up to a compressed state, taking one step back and brandishing the tip of her umbrella at Tenshi's face with bloodlust brimming around her body. The Celestial was gravely concerned for her safety now, not just because the imposing Youkai scared her through appearance and demeanor alone but because the mere recognition of her role was filled with a sense of joy…As if she was excited to be confronting a Celestial.

"Hmmm…Hehehe…" A low hum followed by a chilling laugh from Yuuka sends shivers further down Tenshi's spine, and the flower Youkai goes on to say "I have never fought a Celestial before…After all, it is impossible for me to reach Bhavaagra even though I know where its located…So its rather fortunate for me that you chose to descend, and unfortunate for you that you so happened to come and piss me off…"

Tenshi was in a dire situation, and with the entire sunflower field being Yuuka's territory there was no way that she was going to escape this place to avoid battle. And even if she could she wouldn't dare leave Kokoro behind…_"…Because you don't leave your main tool behind when you still have work to do…"_ Tenshi quickly corrects herself in her mind, but as she turns to face Kokoro herself she notices the Hyottoko mask floating beside her body as she calmly has her eyelids shut. Turning back towards Yuuka, the Celestial feels the foreboding bloodlust fading away from the Youkai's demeanor as a light-blue spirit aura appears around her.

In a matter of seconds, Yuuka's anger subsides as her eyelids go shut and she draws her umbrella beside her body and opens it up, cheerfully humming to herself as she twirls her umbrella around in merriment. Tenshi knows a prime opportunity to escape when she sees it, and after dispelling the Hisou no Tsurugi she quickly runs towards Kokoro and grabs her by her left arm after she is done using her powers. The two then dash past the cheerful Yuuka and head through the rest of the sunflower field. But before they leave, the Youkai pauses for a moment and hums curiously to herself, for she heard the sound of two sets of feet running past her despite the fact that there was only one person in front of her just now…

Kokoro and Tenshi eventually stop running after the reach the edge of the sunflower field, finding themselves in front of the barrier before the Sanzu River. The Celestial pants a couple times in relief, the Youkai saying in a concerned voice "Are you alright Tenshi? You look shaken up…"

Tenshi raises her right hand up as she leans forward with the opposite hand laid against her kneecap, saying to the Youkai with a tired breath "I'm fine now…Thanks for bailing me out there Kokoro, I don't know what I would have done had you not changed that Youkai's emotions…"

"That Youkai scared me…And it scared me to think that you could have been gravely harmed by her." The Celestial, after recovering her breath, stands up straight and says with a honest smile towards Kokoro "Yeah, she was a rather frightening fellow, wasn't she? Well, at least we made it past her with relatively little difficulty…Now we can enter the Sanzu River."

Tenshi turns towards the barrier created by the Yamas and looks closely at it, examining it for the lone gap that the two of them can pass through and finding it with relative ease, as it took on the form of a slightly rippling distortion in an otherwise normal view of the grass beyond the sunflowers. The two beings enter through this distortion, passing the Yamas barrier and entering a strange new land that appears greatly detached from the whole of Gensokyo. The lands were painted with deathly orange flowers and brown blades of grass, a foreboding layer of clouded fog hanging above the ground as the two look up at the light-blue skies that conflicts with the rest of the environment immensely.

"Wow, the Sanzu River is creepier than I imagined it would be…" Tenshi says nonchalantly, folding her arms behind her head as she lowered it and faced the lands in front of her. Kokoro trembled slightly, and she wondered just how the Celestial could take the appearance of this place so casually after she panicked in the face of Yuuka earlier. "So…We are supposed to be looking for a ferry lady, right?" Tenshi feigns ignorance towards the identity of the shinigami Komachi as she poses this inquiry to Kokoro, and after the Youkai nods and says "Yes" meekly the Celestial begins moving on ahead and says with her right arm waving forward "Then lets go find the river itself and hope we can find her."

"Why do you keep using female pronouns?" Kokoro ponders as she slowly floats behind Tenshi. "Huh? Are you seriously asking me that?" The Celestial responds in a tone of sheer disbelief.

While walking backwards with her body turned around Tenshi says to Kokoro "You mean to tell me that you haven't notice how every single important person in Gensoko is a female?"

Kokoro shakes her head, and Tenshi lets out an unsurprised sigh and thinks to herself as she turns back around _"Kokoro is just a bit too oblivious about how things work around here…And I'm…Exploiting her for that very obliviousness…" _Any other time Tenshi's those very thoughts would have been perfectly connected, but now they were hesitantly put together inside of her mind and she glimpsed back at Kokoro with a hint of concern in her eyes for just a moment before shaking her head and looking on ahead without thinking another word.

Eventually after a surprisingly short walk past the Yamas barrier, the two beings ascend a short hill and find the Sanzu River itself. The fog is thicker in this area, but not to the extent that all visibility is robbed. The blood red waters are filled with jagged stones and a couple skulls, and the river itself seems to go on forever with the beginning nowhere to be found even as the two of them look as far to the right as physically possible. At the bank of one part of the river to the left of the two though was a lone wooden boat that was worn down yet still appeared operational. Tenshi recognized this evil boat that had run her over many times before…on land…In Bhavaagra…Its Touhou, don't question this.

Either way, the two begins once again hear footsteps and immediately duck out of sight, poking the tops of their heads over the tip of the hill as they watch a particular person stroll across the bank of the Sanzu River. Like the flower Youkai Yuuka, this lady is tall and imposing, but her height is more in line with the goddess Kanako's if possibly an inch taller than that. The lady also has red eyes, though considering she is a Shinigami this makes at least a lick of sense when comparing them to Yuuka's own eyes. The Shinigami has short pinkish red hair with two ponytails tied by two double hair beads. She also wears a white dress with a blue vest overtop that somehow manages to hold in her very large breasts. Wrapped around her waist is an obi belt with a large golden coin tied around the center. Her skirt covers most of her legs, but one can quickly catch a glimpse of her thick white socks and elevated wooden sandals if they looked at the right angle. Lazily held over her right shoulder is a long handled scythe whose blade contains a wisp-like bending at the end.

However, the Shinigami Komachi does not hold onto her scythe for long, for she lets it drop to the ground to give freedom to her slender yet fit looking arms, which she proceeds to stretch high into the air with a tired yawn, whichalsohastheaddedeffectofpushingherchestoutgodI needtostopfocusingonthataspectofappearances. Anyways, after stretching Komachi notices a lone rock on the ground to the right of her body and quickly lowers herself to lay against the rough surface of the stone back first, her arms folding behind her head as she lets out a merry sigh and fully relaxes herself against the rock. "Not a very active Shinigami, is she?" Kokoro points out after seeing all this unfold.

"Yeah…And considering a Shinigami like her is supposed to spend most of her time ferrying the departed souls of Gensokyo to the other side of the river for judgment, her lack of work could eventually cause a problem from its people. She needs some serious motivation inside of her…And I don't think I should have to tell you what to do here, huh Kokoro?"

The Youkai nods after hearing Tenshi out, saying with a hint of joy in her voice "Its kind of why I wanted to come here first today…Don't worry Tenshi, I got this one easily…"

Kokoro extends her arms out slightly, closing her eyelids as a lone mask appears beside her body. Tenshi cannot see the mask in question this time around due to the fact that she is lying on the ground…And possibly because the author can't find a mask that fits this particular emotion, but the same thing as usual happens as Komachi is surrounded by a light-blue aura of fire and her emotions are shifted along with her personality. In a matter of seconds after lightly twitching, the Shinigami creaks her eyelids open and rises to her feet like a well-oiled machine, picking her scythe up and hopping onto her personal ferry boat within a few short seconds.

After standing up high, Komachi takes in a deep breath and lets it out while slanting her scythe towards the river itself. The statuesque pause is not held for long though, as with a quick whirl of her scythe the Shinigami grinds her boat along the surface of the river, turning it around and zipping down the Sanzu towards the beginning where the departed souls wait to be carried. Tenshi blinks, but in that span of time Komachi returns along the Sanzu with hundreds of soul sharing the space of her boat with her. The Shinigami heads towards Higan at the end of the Sanzu to help the souls be judged, but her speed is so intense that the blood water is thrust high up into the air in the form of two split off walls.

And just as quickly as she disappeared, Komachi against appeared and went back to the beginning, returning to Higan swiftly with even more souls on the ferry. Tenshi is awe-struck by how quick the Shinigami was when her laziness was removed, but at the same time she realizes that simply watching Komachi zip by back and forth along the Sanzu was incredibly boring…Perhaps if the Yamas were to show up and comment on this matter there would be some entertainment, but if this Yamas was as powerful as Kokoro claimed she was her appearance would put a major wrench in her plans. So just to be on the safe side, Tenshi faked a happy demeanor and stood up at the top of the hill seeing as though Komachi's speed would prevent her from seeing the two of them.

Turning towards Kokoro as the Youkai rose, the Celestial said to her "Alright, we are done here. Good job Kokoro, you've managed to help another person in Gensokyo…" A small smile appeared across the Youkai's face, but as usual it maintained the same barely visible width that it always has. The two would have to walk out of the Sanzu River area, for flying would get them caught by the Eyes of the Yamas. As the two of them depart, they are unaware that the very Yamas that Tenshi was concerned about has appeared by the Sanzu River, and with swing of the small golden obelisk known as the Rod of Remorse the Yamas summons forth a barrier along the Sanzu that forces Komachi to swiftly halt before she reaches Higan again.

The Yamas was an incredibly slender woman whose height was roughly that of Tenshi's despite her age, her legs being considerably longer than the rest of her body's height. She wears a dark blue, black and white dress with gold decorations with one ribbon on both sleeves and a blue and white hat with a gold emblem in front and a red and white bow on the back that are balanced equally. The hat tops her dark green hair that is longer on the right side, her blue eyes observing the situation as she steps forward in her red bow topped black shoes that wrap around her frilly knee-high socks.

The Yamas addresses the paused Komachi with aggressive intent, saying in an authoritative voice with eyebrows arched and the Rod of Remorse brandished towards her subordinate Shinigami "Who are you? Address me by your hidden identity, impostor."

Komachi, with a dutiful smile on her face, turns towards her boss with her right elbow slacked against the top of her scythe's handle and says in a very mature feminine voice filled with energy "Yo Shiki, what are you doing stopping my groove?"

The Yamas raises her eyebrows, failing to recognize the words 'Yo' and 'Groove' as part of Komachi's dictionary and in turn responding with "You are not my subordinate…Tear off your disguise, you cannot fool my eyes."

Komachi sighs, saying with both arms somehow folded on top of the scythe's handle "Come on Shiki, I'm just ferrying the souls to Higan for you, why is that so wrong?"

"The Komachi I know wouldn't be so swift to work, nor would she try to overdo her designated job by carrying so many souls at once to my building. Whether you are being controlled by outside influences or are a fake, I demand you reveal your true intentions and return my slacker Shinigami to me before I take action against you."

Komachi's face becomes partially relaxed, and after a light sigh she says in a mocking tone "Geez Shiki, even your threats are nothing more than lectures…Don't you ever get tired of being a pretentious little shit?"

The sharp-tongued words of the duty focused Komachi strike a nerve on the usually collected Yamas, and with a simple exertion of her powers she pulls Komachi away from her boat and binds her in a million chains of glowing black and white to suspend her above the ground. The Shinigami is naturally surprised by the Yamas' show off force, and responds in full disbelief "Whoa whoa, what are you doing Shiki? Isn't this a little extreme? I mean seriously, I'm doing the job you wanted me to do!"

Shiki rises up, holding the Rod of Remorse in the center of her chest so the tip obscures her mouth as she examines Komachi's body with prejudice. She could tell that an unknown force had gripped the mind of her subordinate now that she had her bound in place, but the exact source was foreign to her…All she knew was that the perpetrator was just here recently, but whoever arrived clearly came in through the barrier undetected. The answer to who the culprit would have to be discovered later…For now the Yamas spent her time trying to determine how to fix Komachi's problem, the Shinigami saying in a defiant voice "You complain when I didn't work, and now you restrain me when I do my job! Make up your damn mind woman!" The Yamas sighs, knowing full well that she will have to deal with Komachi's remarks until she figures out what to do…

Meanwhile, the two responsible for changing Komachi's personality have gotten out of range of the Eyes of the Yamas within the barrier and have taken flight away from the sunflower field. However, Tenshi feels a bit empty after this endeavor, boredom starting to affect her as she lets out a light sigh while keeping her arms folded behind her head. Kokoro turns to face the Celestial and asks "What's on your mind Tenshi?"

The Celestial is allowed to be partially honest here, for what she says matches perfectly with her bored thoughts. "I just realized we spent the entire chap-I mean, we just went through a lot of trouble just to help one person out. I know you probably think that the amount of time spent per person doesn't matter, but we need to consider getting more than one person per visit if we want to help Gensokyo out faster. If you know of any groups of people we can go help, then it would probably be for the best if we headed towards one of them."

Kokoro doesn't take long to nod her head in agreement, partially cheerful at the fact that Tenshi wants to help more people out throughout the day. But despite her cheer, she had one thing to say to the Celestial "Umm…If you don't mind though, you'll have to give me a bit of time to think about all the groups of people in Gensokyo." After the Youkai points this out, Tenshi nods her head and says with a smile "Sure, that's fine with me. Take your time…As soon as you are ready to go, we can hopefully make a lot more progress than we did just now." The two beings fly far away from the sunflower field, unaware of the evil that lied in the next sentence…

_Next Time: TENSHI AND KOKORO DON'T APPEAR IN THE NEXT CHAPTER_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: NO TENSHI, NO KOKORO**

As the title of this chapter would suggest, we find ourselves not following the aforementioned protagonists, but rather we shall be seeing Gensokyo through the eyes of the Ordinary Magician Marisa Kirisame. Right now the witch rides her broomstick out of the Forest of Magic that she calls her home, heading across the majestic land of fantasy towards the Hakurei Shrine to check up on Reimu's condition after all that happened yesterday. _"I can't believe that Reimu is getting herself drunk over being unable to solve any incidents lately…And yet when I suggest a possible incident to her she just acts rational and blows me off like what I'm saying is no big deal."_ Marisa thinks to herself in an annoyed dialect, her mouth opening as she lets out a quiet sigh.

Perking her head up, Marisa puts on an optimistic grin and says out loud "Eh, Reimu is probably just going through a phase right now. I bet she'll be back to normal when I head over there, and then she'll take my incident information seriously." With a kick of her right foot against the broomstick the witch increases her speed to make her way to the Hakurei Shrine faster, and with a glowing zip being left in the air as he flies Marisa manages to make it to her destination in under a minute. She leaps off of her broom and lands on the ground at the top of the stairs, smiling brightly like she always does as she grabs her descending broomstick at the center and holds it beside her body as she walks towards the front of the shrine to check up on Reimu.

But as she walks forward the first foreboding sign appears to the left of the shrine, causing Marisa to grimace as she turns her head to glare at the pile of sake dishes that has doubled in height overnight much to her surprise and great annoyance. The second sign that annoyed the Ordinary Magician was that she saw a body sprawled out on top of the shrine's porch, and it didn't take a genius to realize that it was Reimu lying in place with a drunken blush and glazed expression on her face. She was even wearing the exact same clothes she had on the day before, signifying that she hadn't left that spot since Marisa departed last night.

The first thing that popped into the witch's mind is _"How the hell is Reimu able to down all of this sake?" _Marisa, being a heavy drinker in her own right, couldn't even begin to imagine her body managing to live through all the sake that the shrine maiden has downed, but the illogical thinking brought on by being a resident of Gensokyo led the witch to believe that it was something in the Hakurei lineage that allowed Reimu to be so efficient in drinking sake. As she thinks about all of this, Reimu hears her footsteps and raises her body up off of the cold wooden porch, smiling widely as she closes her eyelids and says in a childish, drawn out voice "Hiiiiiiii Maaaaaarisaaa-kun~"

Marisa's face twitches in pain over hearing her best friend speaking in such an immature manner, the suffix attached to her name bringing her pain to the point that she briefly considers dropping her broomstick and punching Reimu in the face to try and snap her out of her drunker stupor just to avoid seeing her embarrass herself any further. Instead, the witch voices her view of Reimu's current demeanor with a sharp-tongued "Are you kidding me Reimu?! Are you seriously going to keep destroying your own damn body just because you haven't solved one measly incident lately?!"

Reimu opens her eyelids and peers at Marisa with an almost child-like air of innocence around her as she lays her right pointer finger against her partially agape mouth and says in a woozy voice "Buh Marisa-kun…I am dah Hakurei maiden of Gensuckityo…If I can't solve dah incidents…Then what gud am iiiiiii?" The shrine maiden collapses onto her back after speaking her slurred sentence, her arms laying bare along the cold wood porch as she blinks a couple times and smiles.

Marisa moves closer to Reimu, her feet pounding against the ground like an angry hammer until her scowling face is visible to the shrine maiden of paradise, and as her right eyebrow twitches greatly in annoyance she says in stoic fury "Reimu, get your gaping ass off of your front porch right now and go solve that incident I mentioned yesterday or I'm going to borrow your donation box and never give it back."

Reimu yawns, finding humor in her friend's threat as she rolls her body onto her side and says with her arms folding beside her head "Marisa-kun…If dah poople of Gensuckityo are in trouble, then you'll kneed to shew me more pruf than just a simple luv ordeal…" With another horribly maimed sentence out of the way, the shrine maiden falls asleep faster than one could say 'Cirno'.

Marisa groans and twitches at her friend's behavior, but after a few seconds of continued annoyance she simply scoffs and turns around while murmuring to herself "Fine Reimu…You want more proof that an incident is going on? I'll find it for you!" She declares the last line with a tone of pure bravado, but after she steps away from the Hakurei Shrine she realizes a rather grave truth. _"…But where am I even supposed to start looking?" _

The witch prepares to get on her broomstick and blindly travel around Gensokyo to seek out more hints towards a grander incident to give to Reimu and help her get off her ass, but before she seats herself she looks up in the air and notices a particular interesting figure descending from the sky. It was Yuuka Kazami, the flower Youkai whose patterned umbrella twirls in the air above her as she wears a rather interesting smile on her face. Marisa pauses in place until the flower Youkai lands on the ground and stares at the witch through her closed eyelids, at which point Marisa says with surprise in her voice "Yuuka? What are you doing here?"

The flower Youkai takes a couple steps forward, the tranquil air around her body awakening Marisa's curiosity seeing as Yuuka usually has a light hint of bloodlust around her at all times. With a relaxed tone of voice, Yuuka stands in front of the witch and asks "Is the shrine maiden around, Marisa?"

The witch says in a bluntly flat voice to the Youkai "She's currently indisposed, what do you need?"

Yuuka twirls her umbrella around once, lifting her head up to look past the witch's hat and observe the drunken, unconscious Reimu laying flat on the porch of the shrine, at which point she decides to lay out her thoughts onto Marisa. "…" Stepping off to the left side of the witch's body, Yuuka says in a calm voice "I believe that there is an incident going on at the moment."

Marisa turns her head in surprise, and says in a disbelieving voice "You think that too? …Wait a second, how would you know an incident might be going on?"

Yuuka, with a cryptic air around her body, walks behind the witch with her umbrella still twirling and explains to Marisa "Just today I encountered a particularly interesting individual at my Garden of the Sun…I barely recall the person's appearance beyond her blue, possibly purple hair, but I do know that it was someone that I had never met before in my life. The person showed an utter disregard for my flowers and I was about to reprehend them for their actions when all of a sudden my aggression just vanished out of the blue and I turned entirely calm…"

Marisa's curiosity was piqued by the words Yuuka spoke to her, and slowly repeated one of the key points "Someone changed your aggression into calmness?"

Yuuka nods, twirling her umbrella twice as she moves to the right side of Marisa's body and says to her "But I doubt that the flower aggressor was responsible for this change…She feared me, which would suggest that she had no way of beating me by herself. After my emotions were changed I heard two sets of feet running away from where I stood, meaning that the aggressor had an accomplice. So if you want to find the one responsible for this incident, seek out a pair of people in Gensokyo where one of them has either blue or purple hair. It may not be much of a hint, but I feel you should be able to use it well Marisa."

Yuuka finishes her circle around the witch by turning her back towards her and beginning to walk away, but Marisa asks before she fully departs "Wait, why are you telling me this? Don't you want to get this aggressor back for messing with your personality?"

The flower Youkai twirls her umbrella and responds with "If I could get them back I would…But in my current state my mind is incapable of creating violent thoughts, as though that part of my personality has been sealed off forever. However, that does not mean that my memories of what has happened have been discarded, so if I cannot deal with the aggressor than it is for the best if either you or the shrine maiden take care of her for me. But seeing as the shrine maiden is indisposed, I have no choice but to put all of my faith into you, Marisa. Good luck in your search…"

With those final words, Yuuka flies off, being carried by the wind of the summer breeze that rises underneath her lifted umbrella as Marisa blinks twice at all that just happened and says with a distorted, agape mouth "Geez, that just feels so weird to have a normal conversation with Yuuka…Something must really be messing up the Youkai and Humans, but I can't just use Yuuka as proof of an incident to Reimu. I need to go check a few things out."

The witch, determined to figure out the ones responsible for the incident, gets on her broomstick and decides to follow Yuuka's hint to figure out who is causing trouble in Gensokyo. The first thing that comes to mind as she flies away from the Hakurei Shrine is the part of the hint regarding the first person having blue or purplish hair, and with her quick wits Marisa narrowed down the list of residents in Gensokyo who fit this description. "Cirno is too much of an idiot to pull something like this off, Patchy could do it but I don't see why she would, Nitori wouldn't be able to do it with that weird science mumbo jumbo of hers, I'd peg Satori as the culprit if it wasn't for the fact that she never leaves the underground. Hmm, maybe its that stinking hermit Seiga…Nah, the Taoist leader would probably not allow that. I hate to admit it, but maybe Kanako is the one causing trouble as usual…"

With a zip towards the Youkai Mountain, Marisa prepared to barge into the Moriya Shrine and accuse the goddess Kanako of starting up yet another incident in Gensokyo. But there was a slight bit of reluctance on the witch's mind as she thought to herself _"Actually, why would Kanako go after Yuuka? That just doesn't make any sense to me…Of course, none of that goddesses crazy conspiracies make any sense, so I guess I won't know until I charge in blindly!"_

Marisa cranks up the speed on her broomstick with magic, a burst of laser-y energy emerging from the bristles that propels her across the sky at speeds so fast that her body is tugged back and her hands are forced to tightly wrap themselves around the stick to prevent herself from falling off. Unbeknownst to the witch, she accidentally blows the poor icy fairy Cirno out of the sky with the sonic boom-like gust as she flies closer to the Moriya Shrine. With the destination nearing at a rapid pace, Marisa slows herself down and prepares to leap off of her ride to make an overly unnecessary entrance.

With a brimming grin on her face, the witch slides the broomstick away from her body (somehow managing to avoid scorching her undersides in the process) and flies across the air, the momentum given to her body by the earlier speed of her flight allowing to punt right through the front doors of the Moriya Shrine and stick a perfect landing on the sleek wooden floors inside. She slides in dramatically, standing herself upright and raising the lip of her hat up with her left hand while brandishing her right pointer finger straight ahead of her, proclaiming with grand bravado "Alright Kanako! Your mischievous ways are at an end, for I, Marisa Kirisame, have come to bring this incident to a close here and now!"

But the witch's bravado would soon turn into awkwardness as she takes a prolonged look at the inside of the Moriya Shrine and finds that not only has Kanako and Suwako been knocked unconsciousness against the floor, but a maddened eyed Sanae can be seen bound to the altar in the back of the room by iron shackles covered in magic seals. Marisa blinks a few times at what she is witnessing and with her body still positioned to match what she said earlier she blankly speaks out "What the heck is going on in here?"

Marisa hears footsteps coming from behind the right side of the altar, and with a quick draw of her hand into and from her dress she pulls out her mini-hakkero and aims it at the approaching figure. _"I better hold back…" _She thinks to herself as she charges energy within the hakkero and prepares to fire the very moment the person makes their presence known. All it takes is a mere inch of the being's figure to come into view for Marisa to fire a wide beam of pure blue Danmaku from her mini-hakkero that zips through the air straight towards the figure. But instead of hitting the mark the being zips out of view and charges towards Marisa, readying to chop her right hand down upon her right shoulder to incapacitate her when she freezes in place mid-swing upon recognizing the witch.

Marisa shares this feeling of recognition with the "mysterious" person and shuts down her mini-hakkero, whose beam has taken out the entire right side of Kanako's altar. Both figures bat their eyelashes at each other awkwardly, and the second figure pulls their arm and body back and lets out a light cough of embarrassment at her mistake. The lady in question is roughly the height of the Ordinary Magician, with her unnaturally red eyes immediately revealing that she isn't a human unlike Marisa. The lady has shoulder-length pink hair with Chinese-style double buns at the top. The right arm she was about to harm Marisa with was wrapped in bandages while the left arm has a broken shackle around the wrist. The lady was dressed in a white shirt and a green skirt, over the both of them lying a brown front panel that has a thorny vine motif and a large rose-shaped ornament just below collar level. With a somewhat muscular figure more adapt to combat, this being had only an above-average sized chest. Nothing too large, but nothing too small either.

Putting her mini-hakkero away, Marisa addresses the being by her name with a bit of respect in her voice "Kasen, what are you doing here?"

The hermit known as Kasen Ibaraki (Or Ibarakasen in some circles of the internet), says with familiarity and politeness towards the Ordinary Magician "I should be asking you that question Marisa, for a moment there I thought you were an unfamiliar intruder."

Kasen lays her right arm beside her body and holds her left one under her chest, turning around as the furious Sanae exclaims to the hermit "You let me out of these shackles right now you heathen of an interloper! I am your Supreme Goddess, and this act of blasphemy against me shall not be overlooked once I am freed! DO YOU HEAR ME, BLASPHEMER?!" Marisa is utterly shocked by the usually reserved Sanae letting out such an angered outburst, and the fact that she referred to herself as a goddess was even more glaring to the Ordinary Magician.

Kasen leans down in front of Sanae, glaring straight at her while murmuring loud enough for Marisa to hear "If I hadn't used up most of my tools to knock out the other two and shackle you to the wall, I would seriously slap a seal on your mouth just to stop your incessant babbling!"

The hermit was being surprisingly harsh towards the shrine maiden of the Moriya Shrine, but as Kasen lifts her body up and leaves Sanae with a harsh scowl Marisa doesn't say a word regarding the hermit's attitude as she brings it up all on her own after a momentary sigh "Sorry Marisa, but I'm under a bit of stress right now. My plan was to come up here and help the Moriya Shrine maiden out with a couple problems…But when I arrived a few hours ago the elder goddess was bowing in front of the shrine maiden while the younger one was doing the same thing. The shrine maiden had gone power hungry and suddenly adopted an aggressive personality, so I had no choice but to restrain her and knock out the two goddesses so they wouldn't stop me from examining the shrine maiden."

"What do you hope to accomplish by doing that?" Marisa asks, paying little attention to Sanae's exclamations in the background as the hermit proceeds to respond with "Hopefully I can get rid of whatever is forcing her to behave like this by examining her mind…And maybe I can find out who is responsible for this whole mess."

The witch's expression lights up, and after recalling just why she came to the Moriya Shrine in the first place she states to Kasen "Actually, I wanted to discuss something with your Kasen. The Moriyas aren't the only ones acting strange in Gensokyo. A couple of people I know in the Human Village and the flower youkai Yuuka Kazami have also had their personalities radically altered. I was just wondering if perhaps that evil hermit Seiga Kaku might be the one behind all of this?"

Kasen's eyes light up, and as she rubs her chin in thought she quickly says to Marisa "No, I don't think she's the one behind all of this. This just doesn't seem like her style…"

The hermit turns to face Sanae and lowers her arms, saying in a mature voice to the witch "Also, despite what we've both said, I don't truly believe that anyone has had their personalities changed…At the very least, not directly."

Marisa's eyelids perk up in intrigue towards what Kasen said, and in turn she asks "Huh? What do you mean by that Kasen?"

"One of the first things I tried to do was use one of my essences to relax the shrine maiden, but even with my strongest batch she managed to stay aggressive. Its not so much that her personality has been shifted, but rather that her mind has been locked into a single emotional state and that in turn has forced her personality to change in order to cooperate with that singular emotion." At the end of Kasen's explanation, the Ordinary Magician thought about who might be capable of doing such a thing, her arms folding in front of her chest as the hermit turns to face her and asks "Do you have an idea about the culprit?"

Marisa nervously chuckles and rubs the back of her head with her right hand, responding to Kasen with "Eh, I might know who is behind this, but I'll go investigate that on my own if you don't mind Kasen."

The hermit smiles and nods her head, saying to Marisa with kindness in her voice "Not at all Marisa. I should stick around here to keep things under control…But before you go, I do have to wonder…Why isn't Reimu with you?"

Responding right away to that question, Marisa says in a blunt voice "Oh, she's lying in front of her shrine drunk off her ass just because she hasn't solved an incident lately. I'm hoping to get her up and running by proving to her that an incident is occurring right now."

Kasen sighs and rubs the front of her forehead with her right fingers, saying in an unsurprised yet annoyed voice "Ugh…Reimu really doesn't conduct herself properly as a shrine maiden. When this all blows over I'm going down to the shrine to give her yet ANOTHER lecture on the things she's doing wrong." Removing her hand from her face, the hermit smiles and says to Marisa "Still, Reimu is lucky to have a friend that cares so much for her well-being. I guess you could say you are the 'yin' that complements her 'yang'."

Marisa grins and says in a boisterous voice "Of course! Nothing would get resolved in Gensokyo if it wasn't for me motivating Reimu to get shit done!" Kasen giggles at Marisa's boast, and because of this her stress level decreases a bit.

With a snap of her fingers, Marisa summons her broomstick from outside the shrine and quickly gets on top of it, turning her head behind herself as she says to Kasen "Anyways, I'm going to head off now. I may not have found the culprit, but I definitely have more proof that there is an incident going on. Hopefully I can get Reimu to start working again once I head back. Thanks for your help Kasen."

Before the hermit can reply to Marisa's thanks, the witch zips off away from the Moriya Shrine, leaving Kasen to deal with the aggressive Sanae as the shrine maiden declares with passionate anger "Ha! Now its just you and me! You will see soon-" Kasen turns to face Sanae and says to her bluntly with her left knuckles cracking "You know, I don't need you conscious to examine your mind." Though this doesn't subdue the shrine maiden's aggression, at the very least it stops her from talking for the time being, and Kasen cracks a smile of relief.

Meanwhile, the Ordinary Magician flies across Gensokyo away from the Youkai Mountains. Though she said she was heading back to the Hakurei Shrine to Kasen, there was still one thing that Marisa wanted to check out before she returned. There was a low possibility that her search would end in fruition, but so long as she was out there was no harm in trying. Curving her flight a bit towards the east of the Human Village, the Ordinary Magician found herself passing above the Bamboo Forest as she headed towards the Eientei, a sacred manor hidden deep within the bamboo shoots.

However, her trip would be cut short, as with a quick glance down into the forest Marisa notices a suspiciously scorched area along with what appeared to be the immortal Fujiwara no Mokou lying on the ground fast asleep with another being standing in front of her that the witch instantly recognized despite how short of a time she spent looking at her. Quickly turning herself around, Marisa descended into the patch of land where the immortal human was lying down, and with a tight clench of her broomstick in her right hand after she landed the witch boldly asked "Oy, what's going here?"

The being standing before Mokou turns around eloquently, drawing the long sleeve of her pink shirt up in front of her pure white face as she stares at the witch with her dark brown eyes, her very long hime cut black hair swaying in unison with her turning body as the long dark burgundy skirt decorated in yellow with bamboo and flower shapes wrinkles momentarily as it tries to keep up with the graceful movements of its owner. The eloquent princess smiles at Marisa, saying with familiarity and subdued surprise in her youthful voice "Hmm…You are that interesting human magician, Marisa Kirisame, correct?"

"Geez, why are people responding to my inquiries with questions today?" Marisa notes with an annoyed tone of voice before she looks at the princess-like figure and says to her "Yeah, I'm her. If I recall, you're the Eternal Princess Kaguya Houraisan, right?"

Kaguya giggles and nods her head gracefully, saying to the Ordinary Magician "I am actually surprised you remember my name. After all, you and I never met during the Imperishable Night incident I caused."

"Yeah, Remilia tossed your name around a couple times after she solved that incident, so I just happened to remember it now." Marisa says to the eloquent princess. With a tilt of her head though, the witch looks at the sleeping Mokou and asks Kaguya "So what happened to Mokou?"

Kaguya turns her head to glance over at the immortal human, saying in a puzzled tone "I have nary a clue…I had just arrived here so the two of us could have our daily session of murdering each other for fun, but when I tried to motivate her into fighting she just yawned and rolled onto the right side of her body. So I was forced to attack her with deadly force, but even after blowing her up ten times straight she didn't even bother to react. I also happened to incinerate a pile of rocks that she was laying on top of that I didn't happen to recognize, but I suppose that detail really doesn't matter now does it?"

Kaguya then turns towards Marisa after explaining her side of the story, asking in a polite yet curious manner as a smile crosses behind her sleeve "So tell me, what brings you out here today?"

"Well I was going to talk to Eirin and ask her if she had been experimenting with a new type of shady drug that might affect people's emotions, but I doubt she would be going behind your back and using such a drug on Mokou if that were the case. You see, a lot of people in Gensokyo are having their emotions affected…At first I thought it was a conspiracy by the people of the Moriya Shrine goddesses to gather more faith, then I assumed that one of those sneaky Taoists were causing trouble, and finally I was about to head to the Eientei to…Well, you know now." After Marisa's long winded explanation, Kaguya giggled.

With her smile widening mischievously, the princess asked "Are you sure that one of your spells didn't go awry lately? Perhaps you used an incorrect mushroom or something to that extent?"

Marisa shakes her head, quickly stating innocently to Kaguya "No no no! The only spell I've been working on lately is a way to make my mini-hakkero act as a flamethrower! I haven't been doing anything crazy with magic besides that!"

"Well I believe you there, but I was just wanting to cover all of the bases. Still, this is a rather troublesome predicament for all of Gensokyo, isn't it? Who knows, perhaps I will be the next one to have my emotions changed." Kaguya laughs at what she just said, closing her eyelids and decreasing the width of her smile so its completely obscured by her sleeve.

Marisa, a bit concerned about the emotional problem plaguing Gensokyo, says to the princess in a straight forward manner "You really should get your ass back to the Eientei and tell Eirin about this so she can prepare."

"And what will you do?" Kaguya kindly asks as she lowers her sleeve down beside her body.

Marisa tips the lip of her hat up and grins brightly, saying with firm determination "I'm going to get Reimu off her ass so we can take down the culprit behind this incident!" The witch then leaps onto her broom with her feet and quickly rides off into the sky without letting the princess say another word. She was determined to get her shrine maiden friend off of her ass and zipped right on over to the Hakurei Shrine, creating a sonic boom behind her broomstick that would force her friend awake by the time she landed and skidded across the ground in front of the shrine while her broomstick loops around and lands in the grasp of her right hand.

"REIMU!" Marisa boldly proclaims as the thrust awake Reimu sits up with a glazed, tired look in her eyes. The witch then exclaims to her friend "I have finally found proof that there is an incident going on around here!"

Reimu blinks twice and takes in the words of her witch friend to her drunken mind and creates a wide warm smile while shutting her eyelids and saying slowly "That's nice dear…"

Marisa then goes on to say "Oh no you don't Reimu! Let me tell you what's been going on! Not only are Keine and Rinnosuke love struck with each other, but the Moriya Goddesses and Sanae have been affected and Mokou has been turned lazy by some mysterious culprit! We have to react to this incident together, so get off your drunken ass and lets get going!"

Reimu blinks, looking forward with barely little care as she says in response to Marisa's explanation "Oh Marisa…You so cray cray…There is nooo incidents…There is only…cowbell…"

The witch, despite all of the bravado and energy present in her demeanor, starts to twitch and grimace in disbelief of how stupid and drunk her best friend truly was at this point. Marisa wanted so badly to give up on her friend and just go solve the damn incident by herself, but if she did then Reimu's condition could very likely worsen. The shrine maiden needed this, her life depended on her solving a single incident. So as terrible as she was at doing so, Marisa knew that there was only one thing that would be able to convince Reimu to get to doing her job. For the sake of Gensokyo and Reimu's well-being, Marisa would have to…_**TELL A CONVINCING LIE!**_

Relaxing her body and taking in a deep breath, Marisa prepares for what may just very well be the greatest achievement of lying in her entire life…Because for everything to go perfectly, she would have to pull off a perfect lie for the first time ever. Looking straight at the shrine maiden with a serious, unflinching expression, the witch tells Reimu firmly "And you want to know what else I saw? Suika Ibuki was lying outside the Human Village…And she was **SOBER.**"

Marisa blinks once after saying that, letting out a tired sigh that lasts but a moment as she opens her eyelids and flinches in surprise upon looking forward at the Hakurei Shrine to see Reimu suddenly cured of her drunken stupor with both of the Hakurei Yin-Yang orbs floating beside her body while she has tucked hundreds of seals away into various parts of her clothing while in her right hand is her traditional gohei. Reimu's eyebrows were slanted seriously, and with her straightforward natural dialect returned to her she declared to her witch friend "Alright Marisa, you got my attention. There is something very suspicious going on in Gensokyo, and its clear that a Youkai is behind all of this…So lets cut the crap and get to catching the culprit!"

"Yeah! Nice to have you back Reimu!" Marisa enthusiastically proclaims, but that very enthusiasm dies out rather quickly as the witch realizes something rather dire about their situation "Oh crap…I just realized that we have no idea where to go."

The shrine maiden flinches in surprise, her own steeled determination to solve this incident fading away slightly as she mutters out to Marisa in disbelief "Wait, are you serious Marisa? WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THEN?!"

Marisa shrugs her shoulders, pointing out nonchalantly to her friend "Eh, we can just do what we always do and wander around Gensokyo, find some random Stage 1 level character, beat them in a spell card duel, and then go on doing mostly nothing until Stage 4. Does that sound good to you Reimu?"

"Eh, sure, why the hell not?" Reimu quickly replies. Without a second of hesitation the two heroines fly off into the sky to do…Well, the standard Touhou procedure…In a fan fic…Where they aren't even the main characters…..

Fourth wall, what is that even supposed to be?

_Next Time: A Return to the Interesting Plot_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: The Wanderer That Cannot Be Saved**

It is near the end of the day in Gensokyo. The protagonists of this tale, Kokoro and Tenshi, are currently sitting at the edge of the large and beautiful Misty Lake that lies at the very bottom of the Youkai Mountains. Tenshi is on top of one of her keystones with the Hisou no Tsurugi acting as a support for her folded arms as she tries to plan out her next move for today. The young and naïve Kokoro, on the other hand, sits at a distance to the northwest of the Celestial's current location, her eyes gazing blankly out at the lake's flattened surface as the mist blocks out most of the view beyond where they stand.

The mist also has an added effect of dampening the grass around the edge, hence why Tenshi chose to sit on her keystone in the first place. _"…I wonder where we should go next." _The Celestial echoes this thought in her mind after spending ten minutes beforehand without thinking of it at all.

Tenshi realizes that her options were running thin. There were only so many people in Gensokyo that she knew of that she'd be able to use Kokoro's powers on successfully, and a couple of the major threats were already dealt with such as Komachi and Suika. Though in the oni's case it was only because she was unwilling to interfere in the Celestial's fun. Tenshi pondered possibly going to and using Kokoro's powers to mess with the shrine maiden Reimu Hakurei once more, but considering that Reimu was the target of the Celestial's mischief the last time around she didn't feel like it would be a good idea to revisit such an idea.

Kokoro had been relatively quiet for the last couple of hours, only occasionally turning around from her stationary spot to ask the Celestial if she had come up with any ideas yet. The menreiki Youkai's lack of answers in regards to that same question signified that she too was drawing blanks on where to go next. Tenshi didn't want this fun to end just yet, but from the looks of things that would surely prove to be the case unless the Celestial buckled down and figured out a perfect group of people to use Kokoro's powers on.

As Tenshi lets out a light sigh, Kokoro's body suddenly perks up off the ground as the mask changes to that of the Monkey. Pointing towards the middle of the lake beyond the mist, the Youkai asks the Celestial stoically "Tenshi, what is that out there?"

The Celestial, having been focused entirely on her own thoughts for quite some time now, quietly murmured a puzzled "Huh?" towards Kokoro before she dispels the Hisou no Tsurugi and pushes herself off the keystone to walk beside the Youkai, looking down at her with a tired expression on her face as she asks "What are you talking about Kokoro?"

"That thing out there…" Kokoro jabs her right pointer finger through the air in an unenthusiastic manner that betrays the type of tone Tenshi believes the Youkai is meaning to convey, and with a turn of her head towards the lake the Celestial catches a brief glimpse of a lithe human figure with a fish-like tail leaping out of the water and making a mighty splash down into the lake whose sound then echoes over to the two protagonists quietly.

Kokoro turns towards Tenshi and tilts her head in confusion, peering into the Celestial's blinking red eyes as she says to the innocent Youkai "That looked like a mermaid. I didn't know Gensokyo had any of those."

Kokoro responds to this explanation with a puzzled "What is a mermaid?" Tenshi slowly turns to look at the Youkai and holds her hand out beside her shoulder, closing her eyelids as she begins to explain "A mermaid is a mystical creature that looks like a cross between a human and a fish. If I recall, legend says that if one were to consume a mermaid, they would gain immortality…Or something to that extent. But generally that's hard to do since mermaids are nimble swimmers and can survive parts of the water that would crush a normal human's oxygen supply."

After Tenshi is done with that bit of explaining, Kokoro tilts her head in the other direction to poke into the Celestial's line of sight and asks her "What does it mean to 'swim'?"

Tenshi widens her eyelids open and turns her body all the way to face the Youkai, who straightens herself out as the Celestial goes on to say in disbelief "You don't know what swimming is?!"

Kokoro slowly shakes her head, and the Celestial grabs the back of her head with her right hand and begins rubbing it while saying to the Youkai with a distorted expression "How is it that you know about someone as seemingly important as the Yamas but you don't know about simple concepts like swimming?"

Kokoro blankly stares at Tenshi, saying nothing as a bit of an awkward silence drops down between the two before the Celestial closes her eyelids and sighs, going on to explain to the Youkai "Basically swimming is the act of using your arms and legs in unison to move through a body of water. But you can't just go through the water forever, you need to have air eventually otherwise you'll suffocate and die."

"Do you like to swim, Tenshi?" Kokoro innocently asks, but as this inquiry is heard Tenshi thinks back to a time in the past before she was a Celestial when she was riding in a small boat with her mom and dad when suddenly something upset the tides and the very young Tenshi was thrown out, where she nearly…The Celestial becomes uncharacteristically silent as an uneasy frown crosses her tensed up face.

It takes the Youkai asking her "Are you ok Tenshi?" For the Celestial to perk up and laugh, responding to Kokoro with a merry grin on her face "Hahaha…Sorry to say that I can't really swim in Bhavaagra. We don't have any bodies of water up there, after all. I don't really feel empty about being unable to swim anywhere though, so its all good."

Though Kokoro heard most of Tenshi's sentence, her mind became fixated on two particular words, which she began to mumble quietly to herself repeatedly as the Celestial keeps on laughing up a storm "Feel…Empty…Feel…Empty…"

The Youkai's eyes then briefly widen in place, and in the midst of Tenshi's rambunctious laughter Kokoro stoically declares "Tenshi! I know who we can help out now!"

The Celestial stops laughing and opens her eyelids, blinking twice before staring down at Kokoro and asking her "Eh? Did this conversation inspire you to remember someone who needs our help?"

Kokoro nods her head quickly, the mask beside her changing to the Ko-omote one before Tenshi chuckles nervously and says with an assumption on her mind "Kokoro, we can't go help out that mermaid. Neither of us can swim and I'd rather not bother trying to find a boat just to-"

"No no no Tenshi, I'm not talking about the mermaid." Kokoro interjects, and the Celestial quickly blinks twice in confusion and asks her "Then who ARE you referring to?"

The Youkai, despite the lack of change in her expression, appears to have a rather embarrassed air around her body as she creates a miniature smile and says to Tenshi "I know you said that we should focus on groups of people, but if we were to help out this one particular person it would be like helping out a hundred of them at once!"

Kokoro spoke with a hint of enthusiasm in her voice, something that was rather surprising to Tenshi considering how dully she spoke of the other people the two of them have gone to 'visit' over the last day and a half. Though it didn't appear that the Celestial would get much entertainment value out of this mysterious individual, she still found herself feeling curious towards the identity of this person and their connection to Kokoro, so with a grin on her face Tenshi said to the Youkai "Alright then, where do we need to go?"

Kokoro awkwardly neutralizes her expression and blinks twice, saying with a hint of embarrassment to Tenshi "Umm…Well that's the thing. The person I want to help out is a bit of a wanderer in Gensokyo. But I think I might know of some people who can help us find her."

"Huh?" Tenshi was puzzled by what Kokoro was saying to her, and rightfully asked "Why do we need to go around asking people where this wanderer is? Doesn't this person have a set pattern she follows as she travels?"

Kokoro shakes her head, explaining embarrassingly towards the Celestial "Umm…She doesn't really stick to a pattern. She just goes where she pleases. But I know these people are likely to have noticed her. Please Tenshi, can we try and find this person before the night begins?"

The Celestial lets out a long-drawn out "Weeeelll…." as she stares down at Kokoro's almost childish pout and immediately succumbs with an accepting remark of "Alright Kokoro, lets see what we can do." The Youkai smiles merrily in response, and after leaping onto her keystone gracefully Tenshi and Kokoro fly away from the lake to seek out the people who would know where Kokoro's mystery person might be.

The first stop the two protagonists go to is a lone forest not far away from the Misty Lake, where Kokoro speaks to a particular ice fairy with six crystal wings, light-blue hair and a frost patterned dress that complements her child-like appearance well. Beside the fairy is another one with green hair and a ponytail similar to the one on Tenshi right now, her dress having similar colors to the one the other fairy has but with a lighter shade an a more eloquent design. This fairy has a normal set of feathery wings, but with the boney segment taking on a sleek golden coating.

The ice fairy named Cirno says something along the lines about not knowing who Kokoro is looking for, and then casually mentions that she just recently got run over in the sky by a crazy witch on a broom. Kokoro and Tenshi then quickly depart as Cirno starts getting into a boisterous fit about getting back at the witch because she's the strongest, and the other fairy Daiyousei has to gently try and calm her friend down without realizing that the other two people have departed.

The next stop takes the two protagonists into the Forest of Magic, where Kokoro enters a lone mansion-like abode to speak to a blonde frilly dressed puppeteer about the person she is looking for. Tenshi doesn't enter, for the puppeteer was one of the people who opposed her the last time she caused an incident. Sure she would be able to defeat the one called Alice Margatroid if she was caught, but defeating her wouldn't stop her from ratting her appearance out to someone else or causing Kokoro to doubt her reason for being in Gensokyo.

Thus while Kokoro spoke to the puppeteer, Tenshi stood behind a thicket of trees on her keystone until the Youkai emerged from the mansion quickly, stating to the Celestial that Alice was planning on using her as a test subject for something important….Tenshi and Kokoro managed to get out of the Forest of Magic just as the Goliath Doll grew out of the roof of Alice's abode with the cackling puppeteer standing right on its left shoulder.

Finally the protagonists made a quick pit stop over at the Human Village as the sun begins to set, where Kokoro entered the Suzunaan book rental place to ask the young girl wearing a checkered kimono and a light coat about the person about this mysterious figure the Youkai is pursuing. The girl named Kosuzu Motoori is able to give an answer, mentioning in an upbeat tone that she recalled seeing that person in an empty field to the west of the village itself. After thanking the girl for this lead, Kokoro and Tenshi departed, while Kosuzu begins to close up shop for the night, and prepared herself to appear in the 10th chapter of Forbidden Scrollery (Advertisement paid for by ZUN…Somehow).

With the crimson light of sun fall spread across the skies of Gensokyo, Tenshi and Kokoro fly off towards the fields Kosuzu mentioned, but along the way the Celestial noticed something rather interesting about all the people the Youkai spoke to and proceeded to ask "Hey Kokoro. Any particular reason you inquired about this mysterious figure to people with childish demeanors?"

Kokoro looks over her right shoulder as she flies, saying in response to Tenshi's question "That's another one of this person's unique traits. Unless you have a childish mind you will forget about this person the very moment she leaves your sight."

The Celestial looked surprised by this information, saying in response to Kokoro's explanation "Huh, that's a rather strange and specific power. So I guess you remember her because of your child-like mind, right?"

Kokoro nods her head and faces forward swiftly, looking down at the fields before pointing down and suggesting that the two of them land to try and find this mysterious person. The sunset paints a beautiful orange glow along the fields of green, and the bluster of wind ruffles both the hair on the two beings heads along with the blades of grass below their feet. There are no landmarks for miles on end, and not even the tip of a mountain can be seen from the two currently stand. Tenshi holds on to the top of her hat and looks around, Kokoro standing still in front of her with her head taking a light swerve left and right to search for the mysterious person.

The anticipation on the Celestial's end was easy to see, but on the other hand Tenshi did have a single thought on her mind partially related to their search _"…Why am I out here? This isn't going to be entertaining for me in the slightest. I mean yeah I am a little bit interested to know why Kokoro wants to help this particular person out so much, but otherwise there's nothing for me here and I could have just asked Kokoro about her and let her take care of this herself."_

The Celestial frowns and sighs in the confines of her mouth, continuing to think to herself _"…Am I losing my touch? Have I really been letting myself get soft by being around Kokoro? I feel as though I've forgotten the exact reason I even ca-"_ "Hello~!" A shrill voice greets Tenshi from behind, freezing the Celestial in place from shock as she slowly begins to twist her head around. Kokoro, having also heard the voice, turns around with a little more enthusiasm. The being floating behind Tenshi has already spun around in the air in a lofty manner, rolling sideways across the sky until she floats down in front of her Kokoro stood, her arms lowered beside her body.

As both beings turned to face this person, Tenshi thought to herself _"I didn't even feel anything behind me…Who is this person?" _It was hard to imagine this mysterious person being forgotten by anyone, for her appearance was rather vibrant in colors. The girl had wavy, grey-greenish short hair and dark green eyes with her head topped with a black hat that was adorned with a yellow ribbon around it. At the center of where her heart lies is a close, dark blue "third eye", the cords attached to it wrapping around her torso and attaching themselves to her ankles with one part curved into the form of a heart. The girl wears an orange shirt with diamond-like blue buttons and a dark green collar. The skirt is also green with a faint flowery pattern, but a lot lighter. And finally the last thing of note was her black, wrinkled socks.

The girl's eyes were blank in appearance much like Kokoro's, but while the menreiki was true in the fact that she was incapable of projecting much emotion through her eyes the satori known as Koishi Komeiji was deceitful in the fact that her eyes expressed joy despite the fact that she was incapable of doing so consciously. The way the satori floated above the grass with her arms held out and her little fingers draping above the edge of her sleeve while her lips folded into a little smile disturbed Tenshi, who thought of Koishi as nothing more than a specter until her appearance in front of her sight caused her presence to be felt, and even then the Celestial could only feel emptiness coming from the satori.

Kokoro, barely taking the time to introduce the satori to Tenshi, took a hesitant step forward and held her right hand out in the sky, saying to the satori floating in front of her "Koishi…Its me, Kokoro. Do you remember me?"

Koishi reacts in such an unnatural yet fluid manner, her head tilting to the right as she looks down at the Youkai and says with her mouth widening and her eyelids shutting in a deceptively cheerful manner "Who are you supposed to be? I've never met you before in my life!" The voice used sounded so chipper despite how confused and blunt it should truly be in this situation. The words hurt Kokoro more than anyone could possibly imagine, and for the first time the Youkai reacts without the use of her mask with a saddened drop of her eyelids halfway and a brief twitch of her body before she slowly draws her right hand back towards her body and murmurs out quietly "I-I see…"

Koishi hums to herself, the carefree demeanor of this empty shell of a satori being yet another act of deception created by her subconscious mind. Though her name is not remembered, Kokoro didn't lose sight of her goals and politely asked Koishi "Koishi, can you please stay right here and turn around? There's something I want to do for you real quick…"

Koishi opens her eyelids and blinks twice, grinning and saying to Kokoro without a care in the world "Ok!" The childish shrill in her voice returns, and the satori quickly flips her body around and continues to hum to herself while her body floats in the air like a ghost would, the fading sunlight helping to create an eerie glowing around her figure as Kokoro proceeds to turn around behind her and face Tenshi.

The Celestial finally musters up the courage to ask for an explanation from Kokoro, saying to her "Alright Kokoro, tell me what's going on here. Why do you want to help this person out so much?"

Kokoro glances over her shoulder real quick to make sure Koishi is staying around, and afterwards she looks back at Tenshi and begins to explain with a quiet whisper "Her name is Koishi Komeiji, she's a satori from the underground. If you are wondering about her weird condition, Koishi is basically nothing more than an empty shell who is only able to express things subconsciously. She has no real control over her body, and she can't feel any emotions…At least, not anymore."

"What do you mean by that?" Tenshi asked, the details Kokoro gave out thus far painting a picture about just why the Youkai was interested in the satori.

The menreiki turns her head slightly to check up on the aloof Koishi, and goes on to say to the Celestial "…When I was born, I had on me a Mask of Hope. One day though I lost that mask, and Koishi found it. For a time, Koishi gained the emotion of hope, but I went into a state of disarray that caused me to drain the hope of the people from the Human Village. Eventually I learned to start expressing emotions without using just my masks, and I let Koishi keep the Mask of Hope since I didn't need it any longer…But I guess the power of the mask faded away because it was no longer attached to me, and she returned to being an empty shell."

Kokoro looks at Tenshi with pitiful eyes and explains to her stoically as the Celestial stands with a slight hint of disbelief on her face "Do you see now why I wanted to seek her out? Right now Koishi is just like I used to be, an empty shell guided by false emotions. But if I use my powers on her, then perhaps I can make her feel real emotions again and she will no longer be guided by her subconscious…"

It was with the opening sentences that the Celestial finally saw just why Kokoro was so invested into helping this single individual. To Kokoro, saving Koishi meant a lot more than helping out a bunch of individuals that the Youkai had no real attachment though. Sure, Kokoro didn't real have any personal attachment towards Koishi, but that doesn't mean that the Youkai's sympathy for the satori should just be ignored. But for Tenshi the concepts of sympathy and empathy were almost foreign, and as such she couldn't offer an agreeing statement towards Kokoro. Instead she closed her eyelids and nodded her head, approving of the Youkai's plan much to her joy.

Kokoro then turns around and holds her arms out in front of her body, closing her eyelids and focusing entirely on Koishi's floating figure. The emotion that the Youkai wanted Koishi to experience genuinely for the first time in a long while was plain as day, as the Ko-omote mask spawned into existence beside her body. The pale blue flames of Kokoro's emotions flare into existence around both the mask and Koishi, but the one incapable of conscious thought doesn't notice this as she continues to hum in place.

Kokoro reaches into Koishi's mind with her powers, trying her hardest to instill the feeling of joy back into her in hopes of fixing this empty shell of a satori for good. But despite how strong her focus is and how quickly she begins to groan in pain, Koishi does not appear to be the slightest bit affected, even after fifteen seconds have passed with Kokoro standing in place. Tenshi, who has followed Kokoro's efforts up until this point, notices the disruption in this pattern of emotion changing and looks away from Koishi to see as the Youkai's body erupts with the blue-flames of her emotions, the groans turning into a strained grunt of sheer agony as Kokoro refused to stop trying to help the satori out.

It wasn't until Kokoro began to press onward despite her flaring emotions wavering out around her body and the sun began to reach the climax of its descent that Tenshi exclaimed subconsciously in a panicked state of fear towards the Youkai "Kokoro, stop it now!" The Celestial dashed forward, and at the very instance that she stood behind Kokoro the Youkai's mental grip on Koishi snapped apart and her body limply fell forward. Tenshi caught Kokoro around the chest in the grasp of both of her arms, the Youkai's face jerking forward slightly against her will as her hair sags downward and behind the strands of pink hair the Celestial notices red drops of liquid slowly dripping out onto the grass.

Tenshi is surprised by this, but doesn't get to take a closer look at Kokoro face as she looks up and watches as Koishi lets out a quiet "Hmm?" and turns around. Upon looking at the two beings she tilts her head, showing false confusion on her face as she goes on to say "Huh? I wanted to see something happen because you looked interesting, but it seems as though you simply wasted my time. Oh well, bye bye~!" With that simple sentence of false disappointment, Koishi flaps her sleeves and flies off into the setting night sky, the Celestial paying attention to her for only a few seconds before gritting her teeth and quickly flipping Kokoro's limp body around. Tenshi froze up in shock for a moment, her expression sinking into one of almost sorrowful fright as she looks at the Youkai's appearance.

Kokoro's face looked as blank as ever, but her expression has been forced into one of stiff neutrality. No mask appeared beside her body, and her body felt like a hollow empty shell. But worst of all was the fact that trickling down the Youkai's cheeks were thin streams of blood that came from the bottom of her eyes. It was clear that Kokoro had broken her mind from the strain of trying to help Koishi out, but even though the Youkai was laid out like an empty puppet in Tenshi's arms the Celestial found herself largely conflicted on how to react or speak in regards to Kokoro's conditions. She stuttered wildly, her emotions scattering about in her mind until the breaking point where she clenches her eyelids tightly shut and a tear drop or two slips between them, after which the Celestial quickly leaps onto her keystone and flies away to parts unknown in the dead of night…

"_This is the sad truth of Koishi Komeiji. Truly, Kokoro's efforts were in vain despite her good intentions, for emotions cannot be reborn in a mind when there is not a mind to speak of inside of this empty shell of a satori. Alas, perhaps this is meant to be the fate of poor Koishi, to never again experience joy or sorrow, love and hate, or confusion and understanding…After all, who in this world of Gensokyo can ever hope to free her from the grasp of her own subconscious? …But what just happened with Kokoro greatly concerns me, and I still cannot bring myself to fully trust this Celestial around her. It may be time soon for my to make my presence known to her, but for now…" _A mysterious blade of grass in the field, who somehow is capable of expressing rational thought, disappears in a puff smoke after showing concern and suspicion towards the two protagonists…

_Next Time: Upholder of the Status Quo_


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:**

**Pardon me for the date late upload, I had the day off yesterday and went out traveling for a bit, so I was away from the computer for most of the day. Either way, thank you all for your support and I hope you continue to enjoy this story.**

* * *

**Chapter 9: Necro Nights**

Night has fallen on Gensokyo, but while calmness has fallen across the Human Village as Youkai begin to stir in their natural environment someone is running through the forest outside the border of the village itself. Her breath is ragged, her sweat is cold and runny, and she feels ready to collapse at any given moment. No surprise here that I am describing the actions of the Celestial Tenshi, but if you knew even a single thing about her you'd be surprised to see her carrying within her arms the menreiki Youkai Hata no Kokoro, who after an attempt to free the satori Koishi from her subconscious prison ended up going suspicious unconscious…But you guys aren't idiots, you've read the previous chapter if you have gotten this far, so I see no reason to treat you as though you don't know what's going on.

Tenshi looks down as a gap in the trees appears, noticing that while the tears of blood have stopped trickling in a curved pattern down the side of Kokoro's face, her body stills remains like a puppet in her arms. Biting her bottom lip in panic, the Celestial thinks _"Come on Kokoro, wake up already!"_ as she lifts her head up and looks onward to see the end of the forest in sight, the lights of the Human Village houses peering through the final trees beyond.

Tenshi stops before entering the village, taking a moment to catch her breath and lay the unconscious Kokoro against the trunk of a nearby tree with an uneasy frown on her face. The Celestial made a decent effort to keep Kokoro's body upright so her clothes aren't marred by the dirt in the ground. As Tenshi pants with her body kneeling and her worried eyes meeting the unmoving glare of the unconscious Youkai, the Celestial wonders just what is wrong with Kokoro and panics as nothing she comes up with can help her determine just what to do here.

Tenshi grits her teeth and looks at the bloody streaks along Kokoro's face, finding herself annoyed greatly by their appearance that taint her innocent demeanor. "…I need to do something about this first." The Celestial resigns herself to the task of cleaning off the blood from Kokoro's face, but currently lacks the tools to do so. Luckily for her, a turn of her head reminds her that the Human Village is nearby, and surely there would be something there that she could use to clean Kokoro off.

Rushing forward with great urgency, the Celestial moves towards the closest house and barges right in through the front door, surprising a robed human man who was about ready to retreat into his bed for the night. Tenshi looks around for something wet and sees a wooden sink to the left with a rag beside it, quickly rushing over and grabbing the object up to soak in the filled sink, the human declaring that the Celestial shouldn't be intruding like this, all of which falls on deaf ears as Tenshi is too deep in thought regarding Kokoro's condition. The Celestial takes the rag and rushes out of the house before the human can say anything else towards her.

Rushing back to where Kokoro lies, the Celestial takes the rag and wrings an excess water off of it before holding it flat against her palm and slowly moving the rag forward to pat the Youkai's face, the lack of reaction from her expression laying a melancholy atmosphere between the two as Tenshi finishes cleaning Kokoro's face off and lays the rag down beside her kneeling body. Folding her arms above her legs, the Celestial stares into the Youkai's emotionless eyes once more, and while she's happy to see the innocence of her face has been restored thanks to the wash the fact that Kokoro didn't even react still made Tenshi understandably concerned.

"…Why Kokoro? Why are you like this now? …And once again, why am I so concerned about your well-being?!" Tenshi berates herself angrily as she grits her teeth and slams her right fist into the ground, accidentally smooshing her knuckles against the wet rag in the process. After feeling the wetness against her skin for just a couple seconds, Tenshi awkwardly raises her arm up and blushes, her head turning to the side as she clenches her fist tightly and whispers to herself "…You are just a tool to me Kokoro…I keep saying that, so why doesn't my body believe me?"

Tenshi glares to the left at Kokoro's face, and as her body is conflicted by these emotions rushing through her she thinks to herself _"…Kokoro…Maybe Kokoro will be cured if I show her positive emotions…But can I really?" _

The Celestial leans forward after turning her head all the way, her face sweating in embarrassment as she hesitantly inched forward, clenching her fingers around the cloth of her skirt as she closes her eyelids and twitches twice, the awkward beating in her chest causing her to slowly reconsider what she was about to do. Tenshi's lips slowly puckered as she went for Kokoro's forehead, but after a momentary pause the Celestial slowly begins to descend towards the Youkai's own lips and readies to give her a gentle kiss in hopes of waking her up. But before Tenshi could finish it, a foreboding shadow carrying with it the twirl of an parasol descended from the light of the night sky, cresting over the Celestial as a subdued, mature giggle falls down upon the ears of Tenshi can causes her to quickly retract her face from Kokoro's body.

Standing upright and flipping herself around, Tenshi draws the Hisou no Tsurugi and glares viciously at the night sky with a fiery anger welling up inside of her conflicted body as she identifies the one responsible for the shadow cast down upon her. In the tender night sky is a woman of mysterious origin and demeanor. She is a lady with blonde hair coiled into a mob cap as a hat bearing a similar name colored pale pink with a thin red ribbon wrapped around it can be seen atop her head. The dark golden eyes of this lady reflected within it the pale yellow glow of the Celestial's sword, but the calmness in her pupils hides a deeper animosity the likes of which Tenshi never felt in any other being. The Youkai twirled her tall pink parasol around slowly, the thinly delicate grip of her right fingers keeping it afloat beside her body as she raises a paper fan in front of her mischievous smile to disguise her intentions from the Celestial. A breeze flows across the forest, causing the purple Chinese-tabard hanging over this Youkai's pale pink Western-style dress to sway to the left as the right ribbon tied braid of hair sways and covers her right eye up entirely.

The glow of the moon surrounded this Youkai, darkening the rest of her body in a nightmarish manner as only the glimmer in her eyes is cast down upon Tenshi. This lady was certainly older than the Celestial, as both the height and buxom figure demonstrate, but there was something else about the being that unnerved Tenshi immensely beyond the fact that she was taken off-guard. The aptly titled "Border of Phantasm" Youkai Yukari Yakumo was an enigma, and one of the very few people in Gensokyo that could not only outfight but also outwit the Celestial. For her to show up like this here and now meant an end to all of Tenshi's plans and fun.

The Celestial staggered, her body quivering in fear of Yukari's presence as the Youkai gently spoke towards Tenshi with an eloquent accent in her words "I never expected to see you again, Celestial."

"What do you want Yukari?" Tenshi demands from the enigma Youkai, all the while gripping onto her sword and taking an occasional glance back at Kokoro to see if she is close to awakening. Yukari chuckles gently and flutters her fan in front of her face twice over at a slow pace while stating to the target of her glare "You are in no position to demand explanations, Celestial."

The enigma glances up slightly, her gaze moving towards the unconscious Kokoro as her smile widens behind the fan and she goes on to say "But, even though I have my qualms with you Celestial, you have the right to know that you are not my target tonight."

Yukari pulls her parasol shut and gently lowers it beside her body, seeing no need to keep it out as with a thought that had no preceding sign she creates a shapeless gap in the sky beside herself that is kept in place by two ribbons, dropping the parasol into the gap and brushing her fingers along the air as the gap shuts, laying her hand at a diagonal flat towards Kokoro, causing Tenshi to swiftly realize just who the enigmatic Youkai was after. Quickly glancing over her shoulder towards Kokoro, the Celestial faces Yukari and proclaims to her "Why are you after Kokoro?!"

Yukari answers simply with "I am going to kill her." There was no drawn out explanation and not a single hint of remorse in the Youkai's voice as she stated her intentions. Tenshi's expression freaked out immediately, her body shivering with both fear and anger as she clenches the Hisou no Tsurugi and declares towards Yukari "Why would you want to take her life?!"

Yukari grins and folds her fan up with a sudden click, pointing it down at both the Celestial and the menreiki behind her while saying with sly intentions and a slant of her eyebrows "As I said before…You are in no position to be demanding explanations." As she says these words two gaps open up in the sky to the left and right of Yukari, each one containing within them a multitude of otherworld, widened eyes. From the gaps Yukari quickly fires two piercing multicolored lasers that are meant to curve around Tenshi and strike the unconscious Kokoro down in an instant, but with quick reflexes even in the midst of panic the Celestial dashes both left and right and intercepts the lasers with her Hisou no Tsurugi using desperate swings.

"What the hell are you doing?! This circumvents Spell Card rules!" Tenshi brashly proclaims to the enigma Youkai after the lasers she diverted crash against the ground beside the tree Kokoro lays against. Yukari grins and chuckles forebodingly as the gaps beside her body close and her fan is withdrawn into a small gap hidden underneath her sleeve.

With a calm air around her body, Yukari says to the Celestial "I had a hand in the creation of the Spell Card rules…Do you think I'd be so foolish as to not include a loophole for myself in case of such an emergency? But even so, I am surprised to see you take up your sword to defend this Youkai, even though you know all too well that you have once again made yourself a target of my wrath in turn." _  
_

Tenshi's expression widened in shock, for the words of the enigmatic Youkai made her quickly realize that she wasn't fooling around this time, and without the protection of the Spell Card rules the Celestial and Kokoro were both in grave danger. Without any hesitation, Tenshi quickly pounds her left foot against the ground to thrust a few keystones up below the menreiki Youkai's body to give her a steady enough platform as she summons one for herself to ride on, quickly rising up into the air and dashing away from both Yukari and the Human Village without so much as a second wasted.

Yukari smirks, saying to herself "Oh…You really shouldn't have done that, Celestial." in a mischievous tone as she opens a gap behind her body and enters it legs first, doing nothing to change her expression as the gap shuts.

Meanwhile, Tenshi flies at a rapid pace through the cold night skies above the Forest of Magic, staring straight ahead at Kokoro as her body lies flat along the keystone platform, realizing straight up that one wrong move will toss the Youkai's body off towards the ground. With the guidance of her sword, the Celestial summons forth more keystones from the ground that form an elevated ring around Kokoro's body to help keep her in place. But even with the Youkai's safety from a sudden drop assured Tenshi couldn't allow herself to rest easy for a variety of reasons.

"_Kokoro is still unconscious, Yukari is after both of our heads, and there's no one I can turn to for help…Oh god, what am I going to do?" _Tenshi's panicked thoughts unravel the very fabric of her haughty demeanor, causing the Celestial to shift her eyes in a paranoid manner in search of any signs of a gap in the sky. However, it is not the widening of a scar in the sky that tips Tenshi off to Yukari's presence, but rather a strange crimson glimmer hidden far in the background that causes her to draw her Hisou no Tsurugi and swing it out the moment she sees a long piercing light thrust towards her body. The clash of her blade against the tip of light knocks the laser away, but safety is not something the Celestial can be allowed to have as more light pierce the foreground of her sight and herald a storm of crimson lasers that fire across the skies in directions both straight and angled, forcing Tenshi to guide both her keystone and the ringed platform suspending Kokoro in the air across the air to dodge every shot, occasionally being forced to fly in front of the keystone rings to swing her sword and deflect more lasers.

After a few seconds of Tenshi deflecting lasers in panic, the onslaught is ended and for quite a good reason. The lasers were merely a distraction, as a sheen of light is heard coming to the left of the Celestial that alerts her to the fact that something is off with the environment. A turn of her head causes Tenshi to notice that a wall of pure light has been summoned in the way of her flight path that appears to be tall enough to reach out into the depths of space above. Worst of all, three other walls appear merely seconds later, trapping the Celestial and the Youkai in a cube of prismatic light and forcing her to grind her flight to a halt before Kokoro's platform is slammed and broken apart.

Tenshi, weakened from both her emotional stress and having to attack and dodge the lasers, turns her keystone around and moves in front of Kokoro's platform to see Yukari Yakumo emerging from a gap with her parasol leaning behind her head over her right shoulder while she leans against the curved gap with the left side of her body, looking straight at the disheartened Celestial while saying tauntingly towards her "I found you~"

"Son of a bitch! Leave us alone! I know I've done nothing to you this time around, and there's no way Kokoro could have ever brought harm to you!" Tenshi tries to brush Yukari off her back with a proclamation of both hers and Kokoro's innocence, but the Celestial's antics only bring amusement to the enigmatic Yakumo.

As Yukari's grin widens, she replies to Tenshi's remarks with a gentle "Oh, rest assured, you are right in your assumptions there. My issue with the menreiki is not personal, I am too advanced for such pettiness…My problem goes far beyond what you can possibly comprehend, Celestial. But don't concern yourself with such matters…"

Yukari points her parasol towards the starry night sky, but as Tenshi follows the direction of the parasol tip she quickly realizes in her mind _"Wait a second…There were no stars in the sky before!" _

What happened next was a spectacle for the eyes, as the very moment Yukari slyly states to the Celestial "You will both be wiped out soon enough!" she swings her parasol downward and causes the very stars to fall from the sky in the form of bright, pearly streaks.

Tenshi's eyes widen in disbelief as she thinks to herself _"This bitch is out of her mind!" _The Celestial then wastes no time in tightly gripping her Hisou no Tsurugi, clasping her left hand tightly to summon even more keystones that wrap around Kokoro to form a perfect sphere to protect her body while at the same time calling forth an armada of other keystones to rush into the sky and intercept the miniature stars that Yukari is tossing her way.

The collision of stars and keystones creates a fantastical array of nova-like pearly explosions as bits of rock spread and burn apart in the sky, the flashes of light distracting Tenshi from the enigmatic Yukari as she sits upright on her gap and folds her parasol up, putting it back into the gap while folding her legs and pulling her signature paper fan from within. Pointing the spread fan in front of her body, Yukari utters a foreign chant in a quiet whisper as the final flash of light from her assault fades away. Simultaneously, the Youkai opens gaps up beside her body to send more crimson lasers at the Celestial in order to distract her.

Tenshi pants, a sweat dropping down both sides of her face as she sees the lasers approaching and sways her keystone left and right to twirl her sword in front of her body and reflect the lasers back into the gaps, surprising Yukari as those gaps are burned apart beside her body. But despite the flinch of her expression the Youkai keeps her chant going, a dark purple aura with patches of faded white skulls appearing around her body and main gap as she uses her mind to use something else against the Celestial.

A large circular glowing blue rune surrounds Tenshi's body, the sky darkening as a glyphic inscription appear across the rune, followed up by three more runs of increasingly smaller sizes appearing above the Celestial while four pillars of three ring appears around the edge of the bottom rune. _"This electrical sensation…Just how powerful is this attack going to be?!" _Tenshi realizes the strength of Yukari's attack, and as four beams of raw energy shunt up through the pillars of rings and fuse together to continuing rising into a swirling blue vortex the Celestial quickly dashes out of the way with her keystone, feeling assured that Kokoro is out of the range of whatever attack Yukari is unleashing.

From the cusp of the vortex emerges a thin maelstrom of crimson energy that crackles with lightning, and as rays of holy light spread out from the edge of the vortex a hyper powered burst of multiple purple lightning streams immediately strikes through the runes Yukari set up with a piercing bang filling the sky, the streams spreading down into the forest and setting ablaze a large number of trees that grabs the Celestial's attention for merely a second before the brunt of her focus is spent in fear of Yukari's incredible power. But in her panic Tenshi realized something rather dire. With her connection to the keystones, she could no longer feel Kokoro's lifeless body laying on the rocks.

"_I-It couldn't be…" _Tenshi quickly flips her body around, ignoring the forest fire down below as she notices with widened eyes that Kokoro is floating in front of Yukari like a marionette, her body having just been drawn out of a gap as the Youkai grins the Celestial's way and taunts her with "Surely you didn't think a cage would keep me from my goal, did you Celestial?"

Yukari then focuses her attention back on Kokoro, moving on the second phase of her chant as the aura fades away in an instant and two deathly looking gaps appears on both sides of the menreiki Youkai's body, phantasmal pale red hands slowly creeping out of the most unfamiliar of realms until it detects the living presence that is Kokoro, at which point they hiss like a distorted legion of snakes would, moving forward from their gaps and wrapping their limbs tightly around the Youkai's youthful body with a great deal of pleasure in their otherworldly souls until the point where the wrinkly hands stop beside the head, at which point they wait in place as Yukari closes her eyelids and prepares to finish Kokoro off. The hands screech joyously, their palms pointed at the vacant eyes of the menreiki Youkai as the end seems assuredly near…

However, in an act that fulfills the lie of being Kokoro's guardian angel without her realizing it, Tenshi thrusts forward with her keystone and folds the Hisou no Tsurugi off to the left of her skirt, keeping it grasped in both hands as she grits her teeth with her expression flared up in anger. Brashly charging head first towards the enigma that was her superior in combat and smarts, Tenshi quickly leaps off of her keystone and flies towards Yukari with her momentum as the stone arcs underneath the Youkai, and in a bout of absolute fury the Celestial proclaims "YOU GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER YOU BITCH!"

The last word proclaimed causes Yukari to slowly creak her eyelids open to reveal a devilish red glow underneath, but the moment she realizes where Tenshi is the Celestial draws her sword and cleaves across her face with so much strength that her entire head is forcibly shifted to the left in tune with the brutality of Tenshi's sword swing. A crack is heard coming from the Youkai's neck, and the suddenness of Tenshi's assault breaks Yukari's concentration and causes the otherworldly hands to let out an enraged hiss as they are forcibly dragged back into the gaps from whence they came, freeing Kokoro and causing her body to start descending from the sky, only to be caught by another of the Celestial's keystones as the very moment she lands on her personal one she swings her sword out to save the menreiki Youkai with some careful guidance of that single keystone.

As she brings Kokoro over beside her body, Tenshi slowly begins to flip around, her sweat increasing rapidly as her pants grow heavy, but at the same time she feels utterly relieved at the fact that she stopped Yukari for good and rescued Kokoro from certain death. But after a brief glance at the menreiki Youkai's body the Celestial hears an all-too familiar and foreboding chuckle and shifts her head forward, glancing at Yukari as the unimaginable happens before her very eyes. Despite how displaced her head has become the enigma had a far too serene grin on her face as the large flesh torn gash that Tenshi created along the width of her face between both of her ears and across her nose begins to heal up one fiber at a time.

The Celestial didn't know what to feel, think or say at this point. It took all of Tenshi's energy to attack, and all that damage was going to be for naught thanks to Yukari's accelerated healing. And worst of all, she was now defenseless and felt that there was literally nothing she can do to protect Kokoro from the enigma's desires. Never before did Tenshi feel so helpless, this inability to do anything for either herself or Kokoro making the Celestial feel…Well, less than her title implies she should be. God forbid, Tenshi began to feel like a normal, defenseless human when comparing herself to the almost unstoppable Yukari.

The Youkai corrects her head's position with a painful sounding crack while simultaneously turning her body around to face Tenshi, a grin continuing to paint her face as her deadly beauty returns to normal and she masks her expression with a raise of her spread fan. After giggling gently, Yukari says to the Celestial with a gleam in her eyes "So you tried to kill me…How cute~"

Tenshi's tension rose, her heart pumping madly as she was barely able to keep her Hisou no Tsurugi materialized at this point in time. But after Yukari chuckled and glanced over at Kokoro's body, the enigma said something very surprising "…This was something I was not expecting. You actually care for this Youkai, don't you?"

The Celestial grimaces, saying nothing in response to Yukari's inquiry. The Youkai chuckles again mischievously, saying to Tenshi "To think that even someone of your bratty disposition and uprising can express empathy for others…Hehehe, this works in my favor."

Yukari lowers her arm and points her fan at Kokoro's body, saying quietly to it "Border of Illness and Health." much to Tenshi's confusion. Glancing off the left, the Celestial watches as a series of pure sparkles cover the Youkai's youthful body, sinking deep inside of her as Tenshi quickly turns towards Yukari and says with eyebrows slanted in suspicion "What is your game, Yukari?"

Yukari lifts her fan up in front of her face and laughs like an eloquent woman, responding to Tenshi's inquiry with a quiet "There is no game here, Celestial. Rest assured, my feelings towards this particular Youkai have not changed in the slightest. I still see her as an affront to Gensokyo, perhaps even more so than you are…But I am not so blind as to see an opportunity to benefit myself twice over. I have healed your Youkai friend, Celestial, but now that I know of your connection to her I will be certain to use her against you in the future if you ever even consider threatening Gensokyo. All it takes is one second for me to make her irreversibly ill, remember that fact throughout the rest of your life, Celestial. And even with what I am using the Youkai for, her safety will last only as long as I allow it…Enjoy your time with her while you can, Celestial, and farewell…" With those foreboding final words, Yukari leaves the night sky of Gensokyo via one of the gaps, taking with her the prismatic walls and forest fires she created along with a rather puzzled Tenshi floating in the sky on her keystone.

Tenshi didn't have much time to think about Yukari's words, for she heard an awakening groan off to the side of her body, and quickly turned to see that Kokoro was waking up from her unconscious state. The monkey mask appears beside her face via a blue wisp of fire as she lifts her body up and sits atop Tenshi's keystone, her blank eyes blinking twice in quick succession as she slowly begins to turn her head back and forth and mumbles tiredly "W-Where am I?"

The Celestial, with tears of joy in her eyes, quickly rushes in front of Kokoro with her keystone and kneels down, wrapping her arms around the youngling's body tightly to the point that the Youkai flinches momentarily in shock and stoically says "T-Tenshi, what are doing…I-I don't understand."

Tenshi, with a tearful whimper, lifts herself up after pulling away from Kokoro and looks towards her with dripping eyes, saying with her head shaking back and forth "You don't have to understand Kokoro…I'm just so glad that you are alive."

"…Was my life in danger, Tenshi?" Kokoro asks after thinking about the implications of the Celestial's words. Tenshi flinches for a moment, realizing that because of the menreiki asking this question she would have to come up with yet another lie to satisfy her answer, for the slight chance that Yukari was still watching meant that she couldn't alert Kokoro of the enigma's actions here today.

"…It was the humans Kokoro." Tenshi puts on a serious face and tells a lie straight up to Kokoro, proceeding to mention without a single drop of hesitation as she grits her teeth in false anger "They once again tried to assassinate you, and they went as far as to knock you unconscious while you were trying to help Koishi out. I spent the last few hours trying to stop our pursuers, but inevitably the leader managed to escape before I could finish her off."

The mention of the satori's name caused Kokoro's expression to change, even if the sinking of her eyelids was only minimal, it was clear that she was saddened by the implication that she was unable to finish helping Koishi out. Tenshi picks up on this change immediately though, and with a smile on her face she says with honesty "Don't worry too much about it Kokoro. We'll try and help Koishi another time, but right now we should place our focus on the humans."

"…Tenshi, why do the humans hate what we are doing so much that they are trying to kill us both?" Kokoro offers a rather piercing question to the Celestial, who has to take a momentary pause to think out a response before she tilts her head, rubs the back of it with her right hand and says to the menreiki "Well Kokoro…I don't think they have any particular problems with me. All this time they've been targeting you and you alone. I've just so happened to get in their crossfire because I'm guarding you. As for why they hate what we are doing, well…"

"Humans are selfish." Tenshi says the one lie that is certainly not far from the truth, and continues on with "Humans care about nothing besides their own desires. Even in a world where every other species is superior to them they feel as though they are entitled to equality and sometimes superiority over everything else. They hate what we are doing because its an affront to their selfish nature, they are only naturally adapting to what is happening in this world, even if it means going as far as to kill an innocent Youkai just to preserve their selfish mentality of living."

Kokoro eyebrows slant downward in disbelief, her mouth puckering in a soured mood as she firmly stares at Tenshi and says to her stoically "Then maybe its time we strike back against the humans…We could always use my powers to change all of their emotions to remove their selfish nature and make them happy, caring individuals, right?"

Tenshi, while being far too welcome with Kokoro's idea for reasons she can't explain in her heart anymore, says with concern for the menreiki "Kokoro, I don't think you can handle the vast number of people that live in the Human Village, especially since we'd have to change all of their emotions simultaneously to avoid drawing suspicions. Not to mention that the Human Village more than likely has someone acting as their guardian that could pose a massive threat to us if we make the wrong move. If you ask me, we should take care of the guardian first and then go teach the humans what happens when they stick so closely to their selfish desires."

"…But who would be the guardian of the humans?" Kokoro asks, surprising Tenshi because of everything that the Youkai has said so far it seems like she would have been the first to mention anyone who protects the Human Village. "Wait, you don't know?" The Celestial asks.

The menreiki nods her head, and in turn Tenshi hums to herself in her mind while saying to Kokoro "You know what? Since I can't sleep and the humans are more than likely licking their wounds for the night, I'll go scout around the village area for anything resembling a stronghold where a guardian might lie. You should try and get some rest Kokoro, maybe go lie down behind that Rinnosuke guy's shop since no one would think to look there for you besides me. We'll meet up again in the morning, ok Kokoro?"

Kokoro likes Tenshi's ideas, and after she smiles slightly the Youkai floats up off of the keystone and says to her Celestial friend "Thank you very much for protecting me Tenshi, I really appreciate how much of a help you've been to me these past couple of days."

Tenshi flinches upon hearing Kokoro's genuine appreciation, her heart beating rapidly as her body is pounded with stress while at the same time the menreiki turns around and flies off into the night sky. The Celestial grasped her chest tightly with her right hand, gritting her teeth tightly as she feels the urgent desire to tear her heart right out just to stop the pain of these guilty heart beats that have plagued her far too frequently for her liking. But Tenshi knew that she was too deep into this lie to back out now…All she could hope to do is ensure that Kokoro will keep agreeing with what she says, even though every lie she speaks pains her greatly.

"_Where did I go wrong? What do I see in Kokoro that makes me think of her as something other than a tool? …What happened to me, Tenshi Hinanawi? I'm so lost…I don't know what I'm doing or where I'm going anymore…" _Though Tenshi's inner thoughts left her distraught, she still reluctantly went along with what she said she was going to do over the course of the night, and thus she flew off to find the stronghold where the supposed guardian of the Human Village lies…

_Next Time: The Great Magician and the Shoutoku Taoist_


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Byakuren and Miko**

The dawn rises on Gensokyo for yet another day in its couple years of existence. The rays of the sun are bright as always, Mystia Lorelei is chirping a beautiful morning song to fill the skies, and the humans are waking up from their morning slumbers with a gentle yawn. However, as a couple of humans who are neighbors to each other step outside with their colored robes on, they stare at each other tiredly and smack their lips, awakening fully from their sleep and finding themselves glaring intensely at the other for a few seconds before the eldest of the two says "Hello, neighbor." The tone dripping with slight animosity yet carrying with it an oddly genuine, merry greeting towards the neighbor.

The younger one says in an similar tone "Yes, how are you doing today?" Only to receive a fist-clenched response from the eldest in the form of "Just PEACHY, how about you?!"

The two neighbors turn to face each other, and despite the fact that they are trying to be kind to one another they feel this creeping desire in their bodies to maul each other for literally no reason. This feeling overcomes all natural emotions inside of their minds, and the youngest scowls at the elder and says as he slowly steps closer to the man "What's it to you if I'm feeling peachy, huh?!"

"You want to fight me you upstart little shit?!" The elder loses his composure despite knowing subconsciously that he shouldn't be having this type of attitude towards a fellow neighbor. But the words were already spoken angrily, and there was nothing stopping the humans from lunging at each other and becoming entangled in a flurry of kicks and punches that attracts the attention of all other humans in the general vicinity. But instead of expressing concern for the situation, some of the humans actually egged the two fighters on, their cheers carrying across the village like a violent, foreboding echo…

This very echo reaches the back of the Korindou, where Kokoro has allowed herself to rest over the course of the night while Tenshi seeks out the temple where the human leader that has been sending assassins after her lies in cowardice. However, the now quiet sound of the villagers fighting wakes the menreiki Youkari up in an instant, causing her to blink in an emotionless manner twice as her heart skips a beat. She lifts herself up, the back of her skirt dampened slightly by the dew covered grass as she begins to slowly float around the left side of the shop to see what's going on.

But before she makes it all the way around, Tenshi drops down from the sky on her keystone and merrily greets the Youkai with a wave of her right hand and a simple "Hey!"

Kokoro's heart nearly busts open in fear, but despite her eyes widening the Youkai doesn't let out a scream of shock and instead gently falls backwards onto the grass. Tenshi grits her teeth lightly and holds her right arm in front of her body, saying in a guilty voice "Oh…Didn't intend to do that to you Kokoro."

Jumping off her keystone, Tenshi bends down and holds her hand out towards the Youkai as she lifts her upper body off the ground, smiling as Kokoro accepts her help in getting up and the Celestial lets out an honest "Sorry" before the Youkai ends up back on her feet without nary a change in her expression.

"Its ok Tenshi, but you shouldn't have gotten the drop on me like that." Kokoro says to the Celestial as she tilts her head to the left and tries to look past Tenshi to see where the noise she is hearing originates from.

"Tenshi, what's going on in the Human Village?" Kokoro asks, hoping the Celestial had passed on by the village from the skies and would share what she knew with her post-haste.

Tenshi shrugs and says nonchalantly "I don't have a clue. What I do have though is the location of the human leader's temple!" This bit of good news perks Kokoro's eyelids up and causing her to straighten her head out to look at the Celestial.

"It turns out that it lies not far outside of the Human Village. I actually managed to find it only a couple of hours after I departed last night. We should get moving right away and hit their leader while its early in the morning, the nothing can stop us from turning Gensokyo into an emotionally correct paradise!" Tenshi swings her right pointer finger into the air with a triumphant smile on her face, and Kokoro nods her head in agreement of what should be done.

"Alright." Tenshi lowers her arm and gives Kokoro an enthusiastic thumbs-up, winking once before she turns around and gracefully leaps onto her keystone ready to take off into the warming morning skies. Kokoro lifts up off the ground and closely follows the Celestial away from the Korindou. The two protagonists fly above the Human Village to head towards the temple, but along the way Kokoro looks down and sees that a grand number of humans are in the middle of fighting each other for seemingly no reason at all. And it wasn't just the adults, but also the kids that were fighting one another.

Kokoro looks back at Tenshi out of concern for the humans, and asks to her "Tenshi, why are the humans fighting at the moment?"

The Celestial, having not noticed the conflict below thanks to her own thoughts, glances down behind her body for a brief moment before looking back on ahead and mentioning to the Youkai "Its just another disgusting part of human nature, where they choose to fight each other over the simplest of matters and things. Don't feel pity for them, they only bring these things upon themselves."

It was a rather cold remark from Tenshi, but Kokoro didn't see any reason to disagree with her considering the evidence present on the ground of the village. Looking away from the fighting humans, Kokoro keeps pace beside the Celestial and continues to follow her away from the Human Village. Along the way though, another problem arises in Kokoro's head, brought on by one of Tenshi's earlier comments. Lifting her head up to look at the Celestial, Kokoro poses an interesting question to her "Hey Tenshi. You know how you were talking about Gensokyo becoming an emotionally correct paradise?"

Tenshi glances over her right shoulder, humming out a "Huh?" towards the menreiki Youkai before furthering the point of her response with a curious sounding "What about it Kokoro?"

"Well its just that…Is it right for me to still exist after such a Gensokyo is created?" Kokoro's question causes the Celestial to immediately do a spit-take and jerk her head forward, quickly turning around on her keystone and facing the stoic Youkai with disbelieving eyes as she proclaims "What do you mean 'is it right for me to still exist'? Why would you even think about such a thing?!"

Kokoro's eyes shift to the right, and as she partially changes to a sad expression with the "old woman" mask named Uba appearing beside her face the Youkai says to Tenshi "When we're done with our goals, everyone's emotions will be true to themselves…But I will be a stain on that truth, because I don't yet have any real emotions to be true to…All I have are these masks, and what am I without them?"

The Youkai sinks her head sadly, but Tenshi calmly says to her without a moment's hesitation "Alive." It was a simple, single word, but it was more than enough to perk Kokoro's head up and change her mask to that of the Monkey.

"Kokoro, you don't need those masks to define who you are. You are alive because you wish to be, not because those masks keep you tethered to this world. And as far as your emotions go, that's nothing to worry about. You are capable of showing them, you just haven't fully realized it yet. After all, you were enthusiastic to help that Koishi person out, and that didn't require a mask beside your face to show how you were feeling. Someday Kokoro, you will be able to express all emotions on your own, and you can decide which one you believe will be true to who you are. Until that day comes though, I will make sure that you are accepted in the new, emotionally right Gensokyo."

Kokoro is stunned by what Tenshi said to her, so much in fact that her body stays perfectly frozen in place as she flies through the air while the Celestial turns around and faces the way ahead. When the Youkai overcomes what Tenshi said, Kokoro tries to crack a full smile while closing her eyelids, but only manages a partial grin as the Ko-omote still manages to appear beside her face. "Thank you for that, Tenshi." Kokoro says with the utmost respect towards the Celestial, which in turn causes Tenshi to nervously blush and scratch the side of her face with her right pointer finger.

But before anything else can be said by the Celestial, she notices the temple in question coming into view below her keystone and points downward, indicating the desire to descend behind some bushes to avoid the possibility of being caught. However, Kokoro flinches out of both surprise and concern upon noticing the temple in question. The fancy temple standing atop a long pearly staircase was obviously of Buddhism descent, as both the red flags lined up on both sides of the staircase and the text filled tomes would show. To the left of this temple was a graveyard with crimson gravestones littered about, a rather grim thing to think about for too long when one takes into consideration the type of religion this temple is dedicated towards.

Kokoro lands in the bushes in the front of the temple with hesitance, standing a fair distance behind Tenshi as the Celstial pushes her keystone away and kneels down to get a fair peek at the temple. As she does this, the menreiki slowly mutters out to Tenshi "Uhh…Umm…Tenshi…"

"What is it Kokoro?" The Celestial whispers as she lowers her eyelids and waits for some form of activity from the temple.

The Youkai begins to respond with "I-I think that you may-" But the Celestial turns her head and lets out a light "Shush" before pointing towards the temple with her left fingers and saying to Kokoro "Hold that thought, I think someone is coming."

Kokoro, with a nervous expression on her face, kneels down beside Tenshi for the time being and looks at the temple doors, which swing open as a being enthusiastically begins to walk out from within. It was a young girl with rugged teal colored hair and eyes, with the fluffy ears of the Yamabiko attached to the top of her head as they perk up and sink down in a matter of seconds as the girl cheerfully hums a melody to herself. The girl wears a long pale pink shirt with tear flower-shaped buttons and a white dress below it with a black trim. She also has on her feet thick black shoes with white socks, while spinning her right hand is a bamboo broom with cleaned off bristles.

"Lalala~ A new day comes and arise does the sun! Day in day out I work about, and never worry or doubt! Sweep left and right, I do not fright, I clean until there is a sheen and when I'm done its time for fun!" The Yamabiko sings a song of her own making in an energetic tone of voice, though it is done in a rather echoing tone. She then moves towards the first step and lowers her broom, grasping the handle with both hands and closing her eyelids as she begins to sweep to and fro, moving down each step as she finishes the one prior, dutifully moving down the steps as Tenshi and Kokoro both watch from the shadows of the bushes in wait of something else.

"Hmm…Just the temple's janitor. That's definitely not the ringleader of those assassins I was expecting to emerge…" Tenshi mutters a comment to herself, but this only makes Kokoro more nervous.

The Youkai looks at the Celestial and whispers to her "Tenshi, I really do think that-" As she tries to get her point across, Tenshi is forced to hush Kokoro once more as she notices the left ear of the Yamabiko perking up as she nears the bottom of the stairs. The girl opens her eyelids, thinking that she hears a suspicious noise coming from afar, which in turn makes Tenshi a little bit nervous as she feels that she might have been caught even though she whispered.

However, the Yamabiko smiles and lowers her ear, saying loudly and cheerfully to herself "Hehe~ Mystia is doing her usual round of morning singing today! I'm glad we are so close to the mountains so I can hear the echoes of her voice every time I start working!" The Yamabiko gets back to work, continuing her dutiful sweep of the temple's staircase for a few more minutes as Tenshi lets out a sigh of relief and continues to observe everything that is going on. Kokoro doesn't say anything else during this period of time, seeing as her last two attempts ended in an interruption.

The Yamabiko finishes sweeping the stairs and removes her right hand from the handle, sweeping the front of her fingers along her forehead and smiling at a job well done as the light of the rising sun causes the pearly staircase to sparkle before her very eyes. "Nothing like a well-cleaned staircase to start my work quota for the day!" She happily declares.

"Yes, you did a great job here Kyouko." Another voice calls out to the Yamabiko by her name, and after stamping the dirty bristles of her broom against the ground Kyouko perks her head up to the top of the staircase and watches as someone floats down from the entrance. This girl was roughly the same age as Kyouko and naturally also the same height, and she was adorned in a white dress with a blue wavy trim on the bottom and sleeves. The top of the dress is a button-up blouse with a red orb hanging around her neck. Wrapped around both her blouse and dress is a black and gold Japanese-style kesa, which she also happens to wear over her shoulder. With the only other clothing of note being her white shoes, one must direct themselves to the girl's shoulder-length cyan hair and similarly colored eyes, which project a pleasant emotion towards the Yamabiko as she lands on the ground in front of her and pats her once on the right shoulder to thank her for a job well done.

Though this second girl had the appearance of a human, Tenshi could tell just by glaring that she had the air of a Youkai around her body, and that another presence usually stuck around this girl. Kyouko smiles towards this girl that is a mystery to the Celestial and says with good cheer in her voice "Thanks for the compliment Ichirin! Say, what are you doing out without Unzan nearby or your hood on?!"

Moving on to a question almost instantly, Kyouko tilts her head and listens as Ichirin smiles and wiggles her right pointer finger in front of her body, saying to the Yamabiko "Unzan is working on the garden right now to help out since we are kind of low on people. As far as my hood goes, I just felt like having it off for a bit before I get started on my duties for the day."

"Oh yeah! Miss Shou and Nazrin are out searching for something for Lady Hijiri, Miss Minamitsu is out on the seas for some nostalgic reasons, and Nue and Lady Mamizou have just up and vanished recently." Kyouko reminds herself of the situation involving the rest of the temple crew, which simultaneously provides quick exposition for both the protagonists and you the audience! The Yamabiko perks up a smile and goes on to say to Ichirin "But don't worry, with the three of us working together we will definitely keep this temple in a spick and span shape!"

Ichirin nods her head at the end of Kyouko's sentence, saying to her in turn "Keep up your enthusiasm Kyouko, and you'll one day become a great Priest."

"Yes, that certainly looks like a possibility, doesn't it Ichirin?" Yet another voice calls to the nyuudou user from the top of the staircase, this person carrying a youthful yet motherly tone that causes both Ichirin and Kyouko to turn without a hint of hesitation towards the top of the stairs. Tenshi and Kokoro look up as well, and are greeted by an overwhelmingly holy light bursting from the open doors of the temple. Hundreds of doves suddenly swarm the skies as a figure clad in a bright white robe slowly begins to emerge from the light. Casting up one of her sleeves, the figure bathes the temple grounds in a holy wind.

Tenshi, being the sinful heathen she is, is struck with this holy wind and quickly blown back, her body burning up as she is wreathed in white flames that dig into her impure soul and casts it down into the unholy depths of He-I mean, Makai, where she will surely meet Sat-I mean, Shinki and be burned for all- (Ok, even I have to admit that this is starting to get a bit ludicrous and out of hand, and I have likely offended a million or so people with the Jesus allegory. Not to mention none of this is obviously not happening anyways, so lets just jump back into canon before I create a real life Hopeless Masquerade.)

Floating beautifully down the staircase is a lady of the utmost refined grace, with flowing, wavy hair of gradient light brown and purple complimenting the glistening warmth of her hazel eyes along with the easy-going smile across her face. The lady wore a black and white dress with long stripes of exquisite black fabric going across the middle while lily white fabric wraps around the upper part of her arms and her black silk stockings. Wrapped around her neck was a glowing green beaded necklace which is held up by her slightly jiggling large breasts. Fluttering behind her body as she descended was a cape of glorious crimson, while the right side of her hair was decorated by a single white lotus.

As the lady made it past the final steps, both Ichirin and Kyouko gracefully bowed before her, saying simultaneously but with differing degrees of enthusiasm "Good Morning Lady Hijiri!"

Smiling and nodding to both Ichirin and Kyouko respectively, the one called Hijiri responds to their good-willed welcome with a pleasant "Thank you both very much. I see you are faring well today, Kyouko."

Hijiri is only a few inches taller than her two followers, and as such as she only needs to bend down slightly in order to look Kyouko straight in the eyes with a warm stare. The Yamabiko smiles and says cheerfully "Of course I am Lady Hijiri! How can I not be when the sun is shining and Mys-I mean, the birds are chirping a gentle melody?!" Kyouko is quick to evade mentioning the name of a fellow friend, but the first few letters are enough for the perceptive Hijiri to discern the name on her own. Though her eyebrows sink slightly in a soured manner, she doesn't comment on the person and instead puts her warm expression back and stands upright.

With a turn towards Ichirin, Hijiri says to her "Ichirin, I know Unzan probably means well in trying to help out with the garden, but you do realize that a cloud spirit isn't the best person to get near rooted planets, right?"

With Hijiri's soft voice leaving Ichirin feeling relaxed, the girl responds with "I understand that Lady Hijiri, but it shouldn't be a problem so long as he doesn't sneeze, right? Besides, I figured it was ok since we are low on people and all…"

Ichirin nervously blushes, but Hijiri gently rubs the top of the girl's hair with her right hand and says with her smile still ever-present "If you have faith in Unzan's capabilities, then I too will put my faith in his work. When he is done, tell him that I am grateful for his kindness."

Ichirn, in spite of her blush sticking around, smiles as Hijiri removes her hand from her head and finishes her gently spoken message of gratefulness towards the cloud spirit, and in turn she says "I will definitely thank him for you, Lady Hijiri."

This scene of kindness and caring amongst the three figures caused the on-looking Tenshi to put on an expression of nausea as she thinks to herself _"God, somebody throw me a barf bag so I can throw up in it and toss it to remove perhaps some traces of lovey-doveyness from this mushy scene." _

"Well, we've found the leader of the human assassins." Tenshi whispers to Kokoro after dropping her disgust towards the sickening purity of the scene that unfolded in front of her.

"…Are you sure about that?" Kokoro asks, expressing a suspicious type of doubt towards the Celestial's assumption.

Tenshi turns her head slightly to look at Kokoro, and says with a puzzled, jumbled up look in her eyes "What are you talking about Kokoro?"

"I think you may have gotten the wrong temple. There's no way anyone at the Myouren Temple could possibly have sent assassins after us." Kokoro's words greatly confuse Tenshi, especially the fact that the Youkai knows the name of the temple itself.

With a wary raise of her right eyebrow, Tenshi begins to say "Wait a second Kokoro, do you kn-" but before she can fully finish yet another voice interrupts the two's conversation and forces the Celestial to look back towards the temple to see what's going on.

"You three appear to be having a nice morning." This calm, casual voice reaches the ears of the three Myouren Temple inhabitants, and in a second they shift their heads to the right of where they stand. Hijiri holds her arms out as both Kyouko and Ichirin quickly go behind her with their bodies trembling uneasily as three figures approach them from the west side of the temple.

The first person to the far left is a girl with an even younger looking appearance than either Ichirin or Kyouko. She has grey hair that is curled into a wavy ponytail in the back, with a blue Eboshi adorned atop her head. Her eyes are grey and appear gentle in nature, but her smile is that of a mischievous child. Wearing such Heian Era clothing as a kariginu and a suikan that is modified with the addition of a purple skirt, it was clear that this girl was attempting to honor a foregone era of history. This girl, with arms folded into her sleeves, expressed a hostile stare towards Kyouko as she stopped walking.

The girl to the far right is a little more simplistic in design. She too appears younger than the two followers of Buddhism, but at the same time she is also a little older looking than her grey-haired companion. She has neck-length green hair, green eyes, and a dark green dress with ofuda along the bottom. Where her legs should be are two ghostly "tails", and on top of her head is a kanmuri-style hat. Unlike her counterpart, she gives a smile towards Ichirin, though the nature of it is rather rough in appearance.

The last person who takes front and center importance amongst the trio is a girl that is roughly the same age as Hijiri appearance-wise, their heights matching perfectly when not taking into account this girl's light, almost platinum blonde hair that is styled to look like horns. Wrapping around the person's head is a purple headgear that can only be described as headphones or earmuffs, both sides of them bearing the Chinese character for Harmony. Her clothes are a purple dress under a white vest with elaborate trimming and a flowing, regal emperor's cape with a purple backside and a wavy patterned crimson inside. Held front and center before her chest in the grasp of her right hand is a shaku, and sheathed beside her left hip is the famous Seven Star Sword of Taoism legend.

Looking at Hijiri with her relaxed grey eyes, the central girl notes the Buddhists unease and lets out a joking laugh, saying not a moment afterwards "Come now Byakuren, surely my presence doesn't offend your eyes that much?"

Whoever this girl was, she spoke casually towards the Buddhist magician, even going so far as to the call her by her first name when all of her followers respectfully refer to her by her last. Kyouko exclaims nervously in bold towards the central figure "Y-You Taoists are not welcome here! L-Leave now!"

The central girl gazes to the right towards Kyouko, and though she had no animosity in her stare the Yamabiko still shrunk back in fear. Casually speaking towards the loudly-spoken Youkai, the girl says "Are you the one whose words of melody echoed into my ears as I approached the temple?"

Kyouko meekly replies "Y-Yes…" And the girl laughs merrily in response and says to Kyouko "It was a wondrous song, surely one worthy of being heard by any prince from any land!"

Though the girl responded kindly to Kyouko's earlier song, the priest-in-training still felt uneasy as a reflection of the aura of tension radiating around Lady Hijiri. Byakuren looks at the caped girl and asks her without hostility in her voice "What has brought you and your followers here today, Miko? Kyouko is right, you know you are not welcome here."

"As well aware of that as I am, there is a matter of grave concern that has come to my attention lately, and I know that only you can help me out." Toyosatomimi no Miko, as the girl is named, speaks in a casual accent despite the seriousness portrayed in her words. Byakuren is shocked by the fact that Miko is asking for her help, and both Ichirin and Kyouko share those very sentiments as well.

"You require my assistance? …Miko, what is going on?" Byakuren finds this situation rather suspicious, but keeps a mild-mannered expression on her face as Miko swings her right arm out and causes her cape to blow in that direction while she simultaneously switches the hand her shaku is in and closes her eyelids.

"I have felt the desires of Gensokyo recently, and those very desires have slowly been changing. There are things afoot that are both new and familiar to me, but there are some things I wish to confirm with you before I haphazardly seek out the problem." Miko makes her goals here rather clear to the Buddhist magician in the most casual and regal of manners, and while the presence of three Taoists does continue to bother Byakuren she quickly comes to realize that if Miko is coming to her for help then something really bad must be going down at this very moment.

"…Alright Miko. You are welcome to come inside the Myouren Temple to discuss whatever it is you need to with me." Byakuren relents in a polite manner towards the Taoist leader, and it doesn't take long afterwards for Miko's cape to settle back into place as she holds the bottom of her shaku in both hands and places it in front of her chest.

Ichirin and Kyouko both freak, and with frantic declaration they try to dissuade Lady Hijiri from letting Miko into their sacred temple. However, Byakuren turns around and calmly diffuses the unease shared between her two followers by saying to them "We may have our problems with the Taoists, but there is no reason to suspect that they would do any harm to us. So please you two, while I am inside I would appreciate it if you treated our other two guests with both respect and patience."

Ichirin and Kyouko look off in separate directions guiltily, apologizing in unison to Lady Hijiri with "Ok, we won't cause any trouble…"

After gently disciplining the two followers as though they were children under her care, the motherly Byakuren turns back to face Miko as the Taoist is bent over with her right hand plastering a strange seal onto the ground an inch in front of her body. Standing upright to face the Buddhist magician, Miko grins while Byakuren says to her "Are you ready to head inside?"

"Certainly Byakuren. I have always wondered what the inside of a Buddhist temple is like, so this shall be a wondrous experience for me!" Miko casually expresses her enthusiasm towards Byakuren, but before she climbs the stares she turns to her two followers.

"I expect good behavior from you both. Especially you, Futo…I do not want a repeat of the last time." Glaring specifically at the grey-haired girl named Mononobe no Futo, Miko turns back around and joins Byakuren in floating up the staircase after Futo has nodded in response to her Prince's wishes.

Before the two leaders ascended the stairs though, Tenshi grinned and lifted herself up off the ground, turning to Kokoro and saying to her with a quiet squeal preceding it "This is a perfect opportunity Kokoro! There are two leaders of the humans here ripe and ready to have their emotions changed so we can stop their attempts to assassinate us! So go on, get to it!"

As the Celestial enthusiastically points towards Byakuren and Miko, Kokoro closes her eyelids and slowly shakes her head back in forth, showing a slight bit of disagreement towards Tenshi's idea much to the Celestial's surprise. Tenshi then recalls what Kokoro was saying earlier, and says to her "Kokoro, seriously, do you know these people or something?"

Kokoro is evasive of the subject, her heading turning away from Tenshi as the Celestial grit her teeth in annoyance and slowly said to the menreiki Youkai "Kokoro…Do you know those two leaders or not?"

Kokoro closes her eyelids and shivers, sealing her mouth up tight to avoid saying anything to Tenshi, which only makes the Celestial more suspicious of the Youkai's motives. Tenshi thrusting her arms out and grabbing Kokoro by the shoulders jolt the Youkai out of her reclusive state, causing her to look at the frenzied eyes of the Celestial as she scowls and says to her in a more demanding voice "Kokoro, I don't like the fact that you are hiding information from me. If you know anything about these two who have sent assassins after us, then-"

"Miss Hijiri and Miss Miko are not the type who would send people to kill others!" Kokoro blurts out in tearful rage towards Tenshi, catching the Celestial entirely off-guard and snapping her out of her frenzy almost instantly as she looks at the Youkai's eyes and sees a couple tears dripping from her ducts, but there was nary a mask to be found beside Kokoro's body as she cried.

Guiltily, Tenshi withdraws her arms from Kokoro's body and thinks to herself _"What did I just do?" _As she changes her expression to show disgust towards herself.

As Kokoro continues to cry with a rather stoic expression on her face, Tenshi sighs and sits herself down in a criss-cross manner on the ground, holding one hand against her right kneecap as she looks at the Youkai and in an apologetic tone asks her "Sorry Kokoro…If you want to explain your connection to the two leaders, I will be more than willing to hear you out."

Tenshi's purpose in saying this was two-fold. She wanted to know the connection between Miko and Byakuren and Kokoro, but at the same time she wanted to know of someway that she could convince the Youkai that those two might have possibly tried to attack them.

Kokoro lets out a light sniffle after hearing the kind Tenshi she remembers ask her such a curious inquiry, and with a smile on her face as the final tears trickle down her cheeks the Youkai floats closer to the Celestial and kneels down to begin explaining her story to Tenshi.

"When I was first born, I was nothing more than a collection of masks. But I lost the Mask of Hope, as I know you remember me mentioning, and I caused trouble across all of Gensokyo. But there were a few people who selflessly sought to help me become a Youkai instead of a living set of masks. One of them was Miko, who crafted a new Mask of Hope in her image to make sure that I would get a feeling of hope towards the future once more. The other one was Byakuren, who taught me how to control my emotions via Buddhism. I owe a lot to the two of them…"

Though Kokoro's words were heartfelt, Tenshi was already at the ready to use those very words against the two religious leaders, in the process hopefully turning the Youkai against them for her own ends. The Celestial says to Kokoro "You owe so much to them, yet all they gave you were treachery and deception…"

Kokoro's eyes widen in shock, and she was about to say stuff in disbelief towards Tenshi before the Celestial intercepted the shift in emotions the Youkai was going through and said to her "The one called Miko offered you a new mask? Hmph, clearly all Miko saw in you was a collection of masks that needed to be completed, and probably knew that once you accepted the Mask of Hope your existence as a Youkai would end. As for Byakuren, its clear as day that she merely taught you Buddhism as a front to try and recruit you into her army of Youkai."

"W-What?!" Kokoro stuttered out in disbelief towards Tenshi's accusations, and demanded with confusion towards the Celestial "How can you even believe that about Miss Hijiri?!" Surprisingly, she didn't say anything regarding Tenshi's words towards Miko.

"Kokoro, don't you remember what I said earlier about deception? You may look at Byakuren and see a pure, motherly figure, but that appearance doesn't match up at all with what I've noticed. She's a Buddhist yet she teaches these values to Youkai, most of whom don't mesh well with the religion. She is supposedly holy but I can recognize the taint of black magic around her body. Sorry if you disagree Kokoro, but I know when to listen to my red flags."

Tenshi's harsh words struck a surprising wrenching cord inside of Kokoro's little heart, and for a moment or two the Youkai actually doesn't speak up against the Celestial. However, when she does finally address what Tenshi has said, she is doing so reluctantly "…Tenshi, I believe that Miko and Byakuren meant well when they tried to help me, and that they are kind people in spite of whatever dark secrets they may be hiding…I'm sorry, but I'm going to wait for more definitive proof against them before I even consider messing with their emotions."

Tenshi stares at the withdrawn Kokoro, and after a hesitant sigh she succumbs to the Youkai's wishes and says to her "Alright, if that's how you feel about them I won't try and push you into doing this like I did before. Once again, I'm sorry for acting the way I did before."

"I-I forgive you, Tenshi." Kokoro says, putting on an honest expression of serenity towards the Celestial as she floats up off the ground and back onto her feet. Tenshi lifts herself up as well and looks towards the two religious groups, noticing that both Byakuren and Miko have entered the Myouren temple and left their followers at the bottom of the staircases.

The two factions stare awkwardly at each other, with only Futo providing any variation in her expression with her rather smug glare towards the Yamabiko, whose left ear is currently twitching as she glances off in that direction. Ichirin notices Kyouko's shift in head and asks her "Is something the matter Kyouko?"

"I feel like someone is watching us from nearby…I keep hearing this whisper to the south…" As Kyouko brings up a legitimate concern of hers, Futo scoffs and laughs at the Youkai, causing her to turn her head in order to look at the shikaisen.

"Doth only hears the echoes of sins in the air. I suppose thine impure ears can do no better than that anyways, Youkai." Futo mocks Kyouko's ability in an immature tone of voice that butches about twenty known forms of English.

Kyouko stutters and says to Futo "W-Why would you say that?! My ability is not to detect sins in the air."

Futo smirks towards the Youkai and says to her "Of course-eth not, that is simply in the nature of a Youkai to be so greatly attracted to sins. A weak-minded one such as yourself will be consumed by those very sins in no due-eth time."

The ghost that floats beside Futo named Soga no Tojiko says to her ally in a practical tone "Futo, stop taunting the Youkai. You gave Prince Miko your word that you wouldn't misbehave."

Futo laughs in a jovial manner and says to her ghostly ally "Oh come now Tojiko, I merely told the Prince that there wouldn't be a repeat of the last time. As you can clearly see-eth, what I am doing does not violate that-eth promise."

Kyouko sinks inward and trembles, her self-confidence shrinking in the face of Futo's childish insults towards her nature as a Youkai. Ichirin, not willing to stand by and let Futo get away with such remarks, smiles innocently and says to the shikaisen "You know Futo, the Buddhist Statues are looking rather angrily at you. Would be quite a shame if you were to incur their wrath for your actions here today."

Futo, who had continued to laugh despite the angered glare of Tojiko, suddenly goes quiet as her face freezes in a fearful blank-eyed expression, a single gulp of saliva flowing down her throat as she twitched and begin to slowly turn her head to face the Buddhist statues off to the side of her body, the sudden self-defensive desire to protect herself coming through in her mind in the form of _"Burn it-eth to the ground…Burn it-eth to the ground…" _

However, if she did this it would disappoint Prince Miko greatly, so it was with great reluctance that Futo closed her eyelids and went quiet in an instant, though her body kept twitching due to now being on edge. Kyouko looks up at Futo's condition and turns to face Ichirin in an instant, smiling and saying in a loud appreciative tone "Thanks for standing up for me Ichirin!" The nyuudou nods, accepting Kyouko's thanks without any selfish intent.

As Tenshi watches from behind the bushes still, she turns her head to glance over her left shoulder at Kokoro, who floats in place without saying a word. "Hey Kokoro, we still need to kind of send a message to these people on the off-chance they are the source of our problems. Would you have any issue with changing the emotions of these four to aggressive? Whether you do or not, we can leave right after a decision is made."

Kokoro nods her head, accepting the idea with little hesitation as she floats forward and goes beside Tenshi, closing her eyelids and focusing all four religious followers at the same time as the Mask of Aggression appears beside her body.

As usual, a pale-blue aura of emotions appears around all four targets, and while it takes a little while longer than usual for Kokoro to affect them because she's hitting four people at once. However, when the power of the menreiki fully grasps itself onto the minds of the four followers.

Immediately after the aura has vanished from their bodies, each Youkai's expression changes to that of an aggressive glare and scowl, and the first to say anything after all is said and done is Futo. "I MUST-ETH BURN ALL TO THE-ETH GROUND!" She proclaims as she raises her arms into the air and summons forth massive burning flames from her palms.

Back in the bushes, Tenshi catches Kokoro as the Youkai falls back after performing her emotion manipulation ability on the four Youkai. However, unlike the usual times where Kokoro has fallen back, the menreiki has not slipped into unconsciousness, and says calmly to the Celestial "That exhausted me a bit…But I can still walk on my own…Tenshi…Thanks anyways for catching me."

The Celestial, embarrassed by what Kokoro just said to her, quickly draws her arms away from the Youkai's back and coughs, immediately calling her keystone over to her general position as she says to Kokoro "Yeah, you're welcome Kokoro. But we can't squander our time here, we need to leave pronto!" Leaping onto the keystone as Kokoro floats above the ground in a straight posture, Tenshi waves towards the sky desperately and takes off, the Youkai pausing for a moment with a puzzled tilt of her head before following the Celestial in close pursuit.

As far as the Myouren Temple goes, it doesn't take long after the two culprits departure that both Miko and Byakuren burst through the doors of the temple, but while Miko has a calm expression on her face Byakuren is in the midst of a panicked fit as she looks at the mayhem unfolding at the bottom of the staircase. Futo is setting Buddhist Statues ablaze along with the grass surrounding them while laughing maniacally, Tojiko is smiting down the red flags with her powers of lightning while keeping on her face an unearthly stare, Ichirin has forced Unzan beside her body and is using the cloud spirit to blow apart the unstable ground and dirty the temple, while Kyouko can only madly sweep dirt onto the steps seeing as though her powers really aren't meant for aggressive attacks.

"W-What is going out here?! Ichirin, Kyouko, cease your actions at once!" Byakuren desperately tries to call out to her two followers, but they ignore her and continue their aggressive attack on their home without rhyme or reason. The Buddhist magician falls onto her knees and looks utterly defeated by what was happening in front of her, but the unnaturally calm Miko looks at the chaos and takes a couple steps forward while calmly holding her shaku horizontally in front of her body.

With a quiet chant, the Taoist Prince focuses on the seal that she had placed earlier, using her magical abilities to activate it and instantly summon forth a powerful, near-invisible pulse that strikes all four religious followers and makes them instantly stop what they are doing and pause in place with their angered expressions and bodies frozen in the unmoving midst of time. Miko then holds her shaku upright and looks towards the puzzled Byakuren, saying to her in a more serious tone than she usually carries "This is what I was referring to Byakuren, this is why I had us wait and watch from the windows of your temple."

Byakuren turns her head towards Miko and asks in an exasperated tone "What did you do to them Miko?"

Miko casually says to the Buddhist magician as she looks on ahead at the four religious followers "I merely activated a time seal that froze everything in a specific radius around the seal itself. Rest assured, both of our followers shall be freed once this matter is resolved, but for now this is the best way to ensure that they don't continue to cause trouble."

Miko turns to look at Byakuren, seeing the utter distraught on her face and saying in a somewhat jovial tone "Oh come now Byakuren, that expression doesn't suit you at all. Get on your feet and listen to what the Crown Prince has to say."

Taking one more quick glance at Ichirin and Kyouko with pity towards their current condition, Byakuren stands up and brushes the sides of her dress off before looking at the confident Miko as she says to her "Good, I like it better when you are on your feet. Now then, isn't it obvious as to why I sought out your help?"

"…Yes, its clear to me now that Kokoro is causing trouble again, but she never did anything like this the last time around." As Byakuren voices her concerns towards the menreiki, Miko smiles and taps the bottom of her chin with the top of her shaku, saying to the Buddhist magician "That is because Kokoro is being manipulated by another person."

Miko swings her right arm out and brushes her cape aside, saying to Byakuren as a follow-up to her previous remark "I heard it from the start…A person with the desire to sow mischief and chaos across Gensokyo through the use of the innocent menreiki Youkai. However, this person has inadvertently not realized that she is not just affecting the people, but the whole of Gensokyo itself with her actions. She must be stopped at all costs before things get too out of control."

Byakuren nods her head in agreement, but with a curious gaze towards Miko she finds herself asking her "I have to know though…Am I the first or last person you tried to ask for help?"

Miko immediately pulls her head back and laughs jollily, only putting her head back into position as she says with a remnant of laughter in her voice "Yes, you were actually the last person whose help I tried to get in this endeavor. My first thought was to ask the Shinto shrine maiden for help, but when I came across her in the sky she called me strange things like a 'Stage 4 Boss' and a 'Bitch of an Egotist', so after a brief Spell Card duel I gave up on the idea of asking for her help. Then I tried to seek out the Tanuki that usually lives in your temple, but couldn't find her no matter how hard I looked. So in the end, you were a last resort. But do not take offense to such words. When it comes down to it, you are perhaps the best partner I could have for dealing with this incident."

Byakuren glares at Miko suspiciously and asks her "What do you mean by that?"

"As much as it hurts my apparent 'ego' to admit it, when it comes down to it you were more useful in helping Kokoro out than I was. I personally believe the Youkai thinks of you as like a mother, and thus she would be more inclined to listen to you than she would me." Miko's brief moment of humbleness surprised the Buddhist magician, not knowing that the Taoist planned to say such words from the start to further convince Byakuren to help her out.

"Alright then Miko, where do you think we will find Kokoro?" Byakuren asks, her eyebrows firmly slanted downward as a serious aura radiates around her body.

"If both of our followers were affected, that means that Kokoro and this mysterious assailant of peace were in the bushes outside the temple. Thus, for them to retreat from here means that they had to have headed south. We must scour all of the land in that direction until we find them, and if that fails we shall simply fall upon my secondary plan. But for now, let us depart…" With a sway of her cape Miko faces the staircase, and with a unified leap the two leaders of Buddhism and Taoism fly off together to find the menreiki Youkai and her mischievous companion.

Speaking of the two, they can both be seen flying away from the Myouren Temple at a rapid pace, Tenshi herself sitting on the keystone with a laid back demeanor about herself as she scoffs and says out loud to Kokoro "Bah! We didn't really get anywhere with that, did we?"

The menreiki Youkai looks at the frustrated Tenshi and says softly "Tenshi…Are you ok?" In a concerned dialect.

Tenshi swings her right arm in front of her body and snaps her fingers, responding to Kokoro's inquiry with a teeth-gritted "Not at all Kokoro. We only came across the possible leaders of the assailants, and it feels as though we wasted a bunch of time!"

Kokoro blinks twice at Tenshi's angered expression, and immediately an idea pops into her head. "Wait a minute Tenshi, maybe there is a way we can lure out the leaders of our assailants."

The Celestial turns to face Kokoro, surprised by the fact that she is the one suggesting a plan and in an inviting tone she says "Go on…"

Kokoro mentions to Tenshi "What if we were to draw their attention by targeting the Human Village? All it would take is for me to manipulate every single one of their emotions at the same time and the leader or leaders would have to come out to do something about the problem."

Tenshi is shocked by how well-thought out Kokoro's plan was, but there was one fatal flaw that the Celestial was quick to point out. "Kokoro, you nearly fainted when you tried to change four people's emotions at once. How are you going to handle hundreds of humans at the same time?"

"Ummm…Well…" Kokoro stutters out a response to Tenshi's inquiry, only for the Celestial to sigh and mumble out "Ugh, if only there was a way to amplify your powers, like with a Philosopher's Stone or something similar."

"Wouldn't someone in Gensokyo have such an item?" Kokoro inquires.

"If there is, I certainly can't think of any-" Before Tenshi finishes her sentence, her wandering memories begin to recall some of the people she met in the last incident she was involved in as she switches her sentence topic to say to Kokoro "Wait a second, I'm recalling someone I met in the past…"

Many images flash inside of the Celestial's mind, but one person in particular strikes her attention. There was one person, who despite not having the strength to defeat, did possess a particularly knowledgeable mind and was highly adept in the art of magic. The most distinguishable thing Tenshi recalled about this person's appearance was that they wore a purple set of striped pajamas…

With a grin brimming along the Celestial's face, she said quietly and slyly to the menreiki Youkai "Kokoro…I want to you guide us both to a place called the 'Scarlet Devil Mansion'." Kokoro nodded her head obediently, and the two figures flew off their straightened path towards the direction of this aforementioned mansion.

_Next Time: Scarlet Confrontation_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Scarlet Incursion I: My Date With the Vampire's Librarian**

Tenshi and Kokoro flew across Gensokyo like they have many times over the past few days. They have left the Myouren Temple far behind them, their unknown pursuers having gone in a completely different direction unbeknownst to them. As the two protagonists head towards their next destination, the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the Celestial turns towards the Youkai and asks her "Say, while I know about this mansion, I only happen to know a couple of people there…A maid and a librarian, to be precise. Who else resides in the mansion?"

Kokoro blinks twice and looks at Tenshi as the two of them begin to fly over the Misty Lake, saying stoically in response to her inquiry "The mansion is owned by Remilia Scarlet, an immortal vampire who has lived for 500 years and is said to have the power to control fate. From what I heard, Remilia was feared in the outside world before coming to Gensokyo to cause more trouble. She's also the main reason the Spell Card rules were created in the first place."

Tenshi's eyes widen with intrigue as a grin crosses her face, and she says in a slowly interested manner "Oooo, fascinating. Tell me more."

"The maid you mentioned in Sakuya Izayoi, a time-manipulating human who came under the service of Remilia Scarlet through unknown reasons. From what I heard, Sakuya took part in many incidents before I was born, but retired just before the Moriyas showed up. The librarian is Patchouli Knowledge…And I honestly don't know much about her besides the fact that she's Remilia's most loyal friend and a powerful magician in her own right."

Kokoro's explanation is met with a nod from Tenshi, who goes on to mention "Yeah, I know that last part, its why we are going to the mansion in the first place. But is there anyone else I need to know about?"

"There is Hong Meiling, the Scarlet Devil Mansion's gatekeeper. She is always waiting to fend off intruders…I even heard she once beat up an avatar of Taisui Xingjun." Kokoro puts a good deal of emphasis on that feat, and while Tenshi is shocked to hear this news for a moment she puts some thought into the matter and her awe subsides rather quickly.

"Hey wait a second, Taisui Xingjun is a God. That has to be a rumor, Kokoro. But if the gatekeeper is the last of the important people-" Tenshi is about to turn around and prepare for their arrival at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but Kokoro flies in view beside her and is quick to say "Well actually Tenshi, there is someone I'm a little concerned about encountering…"

Kokoro sounded a bit uneasy, which Tenshi actually paid some bit of attention to after recalling how worried the Youkai was about encountering Yuuka just a day ago. Turning herself around on the keystone, the Celestial asked of Kokoro "Who are you worried about?"

"The mansion owner has a little sister named Flandre. She is even stronger than Remilia is…Like, we are talking an EX Level boss here. But that's not the most frightening aspect about her…She is capable of destroying anything on a whim, and I heard she once managed to destroy an entire meteor in a second. The worst part about Flandre is that she has little control over her emotions, but thankfully she is kept locked up in the mansion's basement to prevent her from causing trouble."

As Kokoro finishes explaining about the little sister of the devil to Tenshi, the Celestial actually widens her eyes out of concern towards possibly encountering this Flandre figure up until the Youkai mentions that she is locked up in a basement, at which point she lets out a light sigh. Turning forward, the Celestial says "Wait, if this Flandre person has little control over her emotions, why aren't you interested in helping her out?"

Kokoro shakes her head frantically, her emotional state changing little as she replies to Tenshi with "I don't want to take the risk. At least Koishi couldn't destroy anything with a subconscious whim…"

"Well, we shouldn't have to worry about Flandre so long as we avoid the basement. A library should logically be on the first floor of the mansion anyways. Either way, are we almost there now Kokoro?" Turning her head slightly to face the Youkai, Tenshi notices that the mist is thinner is lighter than before, and quickly turned forward to see the ominous shadow of a mansion growing larger in the distance.

"Never mind, we're almost there…" Tenshi withdraws her previous question and leans back comfortably on her keystone as both her and Kokoro descend towards the stable ground at the edge of the Misty Lake.

There is a decent amount of trees near that edge, but before the Celestial guides the two of them towards there Tenshi takes note of the mansion's appearance as it comes clear into view. It looks like a European-style mansion with scarlet colored windows…At least wherever there are windows to be found. There is a clock tower on the right side of the mansion that appears to be the highest point of the place, and what appears to be a black metal spiked fence around the perimeter of the mansion itself. There is a gate in the center of this fence that leads to the fancy doors, but as the two of them descended into the forest Tenshi is unable to get a good idea of where the gatekeeper is.

The ruffling of leaves as they step into the bushes makes Tenshi flinch briefly, for she didn't want to be caught by the gatekeeper if they turned out to be observant enough. The keystone the Celestial leaped off of flies off to hide in the trees, and both protagonists rustle their way through the leaves to make their way closer to the gate itself. The mist from the lake still covers the outside of the mansion, giving it a rather foreboding atmosphere befitting a vampire owner.

However, upon looking at the gateway in close detail, the Celestial and menreiki notice something rather odd. More specifically, there was nothing there at all in front of the gate. No person, Youkai or Fairy stood outside to protect the place, which means that unless said person in invisible there was no one standing watch outside the mansion. But even so Tenshi was certainly not going to take any chances and recklessly rush in, especially with Kokoro beside her, and with a quiet "Shush" the Celesitla guides the Youkai out of the bushes and towards the gate itself.

"Can the gatekeeper turn invisible?" Tenshi quietly inquires towards Kokoro.

"Of course not Tenshi. If she's not here right now, she must be on a break or something." As Kokoro makes this observation, the Celestial looks at the black lock on the gate and quickly pulls out her Hisou no Tsurugi, using its shape shifting properties to make a key that fits into the lock.

With a smile on her face as she clicks the lock undone, Tenshi says to Kokoro "Well then, we should have no trouble getting inside. Lets be careful anyways though."

As the gates swing open with a squeaky creak, Tenshi feels something odd in the sky off to the upper left and looks up briefly to see a bright streak of light zipping down and piercing itself through the roof of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. This light was presumably made by a person, and there was something familiar about it that caught Tenshi's eye. _"It couldn't be her, could it? Ugh, this might get complicated if that turns out to be her…" _

As Tenshi recognizes the person in question with disgust in her mind, Kokoro tilts her head in confusion, and with the Celestial looking at her she says in a joking tone "Well, not everyone can be subtle when it comes to invasions."

Kokoro nods her head in agreement, and the two protagonists make their way towards the door of the mansion. With a gentle push, Tenshi splits them apart and opens the way inside. To the Celestial's surprise, the mansion was a lot bigger on the inside then the exterior would suggest it would be. The atmosphere inside was a little dark due to a lack of lighting, but one could guess that this was the intention of Remilia Scarlet. This wasn't enough to dissuade Tenshi from taking a single step inside. There are some sleek white pillars in the room with bases having a blood red appearance and lines being engraved along the sides. There are multiple doors leading to hallways and other rooms in the mansion, and a staircase that leads to the second floor.

"Hmm…Well, this might prove to be more troublesome than I thought. Come to think about it, wouldn't a time manipulator also be able to manipulate the fabric of space?" Tenshi asks of Kokoro regarding the Scarlet Devil maid Sakuya.

"Well generally those abilities aren't seen in the same person, but I have heard rumors that Sakuya took part in increasing the space of the mansion so it is possible…But she's more known as a time manipulator." After Kokoro explains Sakuya's powers in a little more detail, the Celestial nods her head and points towards the many rooms ahead.

"Kokoro, I know you may disagree with me on this…But I think it will be for the best if we split up for a bit." Tenshi says as she taps her chin in thought.

"How come?" The Youkai innocently asks as she tilts her head to the right and looks at the Celestial's face.

"Well, we both don't know the layout of the mansion, and because it's a rather big place I think it will be for the best if we split up to cover more ground. Our goal is to find the library and collect a Philosopher's Stone or anything that can amplify your powers while avoiding contact with anyone living in the mansion." Tenshi says all of this confidently, but this confidence doesn't radiate onto Kokoro in the slightest.

"But Tenshi, what if we accidentally run into Flandre? Or what if someone else really strong finds me? Or what if-" The Celestial kneels down in front of the stoically worried Kokoro and places two fingers against her lips to silence her for the moment, which causes her to put on her Mask of Confusion beside her face before Tenshi pulls her hand back and smiles.

"Kokoro, have a little more confidence in yourself. You don't need me by your side to do anything. I think you can handle anyone that gets in your way, even that Flandre person." Tenshi shows her faith in the abilities of the menreiki, but Kokoro raises his eyebrows nervously and responds with a quiet stutter of "B-But Tenshi…"

Tenshi pats Kokoro right on the shoulder and quickly says to her "You shouldn't have to go that far anyways Kokoro. You've been pretty good at staying out of sight when we've been dealing with other problematic figures, so just keep being that stealthy and use your powers on anyone you deem to be threatening and you won't have any trouble."

"…Tenshi, I don't want to leave your side, what if I fail to do that?" Kokoro looks down with a hint of sadness in her eyes, and as the Celestial pulls her hand away and lets out a quiet sigh she closes her eyelids.

Holding her right hand a moment later with a pinky extended, an action which puzzles Kokoro immensely as she once again tilts her head to the side as the Celestial explains to the Youkai "Come on Kokoro, have I ever been wrong before? Have a little faith in yourself and you'll be fine. But if things do get too hairy, then I will definitely come to your aid immediately, I pinky swear it."

Kokoro, still not understanding the meaning behind this 'pinky swear', nonetheless extended her own right pinky and intertwined it with Tenshi's own, forming a promise between them both that would stick throughout their divided travels in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. After this pinky swear had been accomplished, Tenshi nods her head and stands upright, saying with bold confidence as she pointed on ahead "Alright, I'll take the left side of the mansion while you take the right. Good luck to you Kokoro!"

The Celestial makes a mad dash for one of the closest corridors, and though Kokoro holds her right arm out with her mouth open as if ready to say something she is quick to retract it and silence herself. In her mind the Youkai thinks _"…Now that I think about it, this is a mansion yet the foyer is surprisingly empty. Maybe there aren't very many people active at the moment…Vampires are creatures of the night, after all." _

Feeling a bit more easy towards exploring the mansion, Kokoro nods her head and tries to pump her right fist in front of her chest confidently like Tenshi would, in turn trying to force an overzealous smile across her face only for the Hyottoko mask to appear beside her face instead. This causes the Youkai to become a little embarrassed, and she swiftly lowers her arm and says quietly to herself "…I better just get a move on and try to find this library." And with that Kokoro floats towards the nearby hallway.

Back with Tenshi, the Celestial is busy running through the hallway with the Hisou no Tsurugi grasped in her right hand just in case she has to fight someone. Whenever she nears a corner she pauses for a moment behind a pillar to look around and see if anyone was approaching, but at the same time she also looks back to see if Kokoro might have actually chosen to follow her. For a moment, Tenshi was actually glad to not see the Youkai by her side, since it would be good for her confidence if she was by herself.

After looking around a second corner, Tenshi takes the T-split and goes down a slightly brighter hallway, which reveals the vanilla colored walls and red royal carpets that line the grounds. There were a ton of doors on both sides of the room that appeared to lead to nowhere at all, which infuriated the Celestial in her search for the library. "Geez, did the create a mansion or a maze? How does anyone get through this place?" Tenshi comments on the layout with gritted teeth as she rounds another corner.

"And there's literally nobody here. Maybe Kokoro's information is outdated and they evacuated the mansion a while ago…Ugh, I need find this library fast before I go crazy in this place." Tenshi rounds another corner, but this time notices something suspicious up ahead that forces her to pause and glance around another pillar. Heading towards a room at the end of the left side of the room is a little devilish creature with a fancy black and white suit and flowing red hair, with small black bat-like wings on the sides of her head and shoulder blades. The little devil is carrying a couple books in her arms as she heads into the room, which piques the interest of Tenshi.

"Hmmm? I wonder if that creature is going towards the library…" The Celestial pulls out from behind the pillar and dashes after the little devil, but doesn't have to go long for as soon as she gets into view of the door she finds the location she desires to see.

As far as the eyes can see are hundreds upon hundreds of books placed inside of towering shelves that reach up to the very heavens themselves, with only a slight glimmer on the ceiling going against that exaggerated line of thinking. There were a bunch of books scattered along the ground aimlessly, signifying a bit of laziness on the part of the librarian herself, at least in the eyes of Tenshi. Entering this awe-inspiring temple of books, the Celestial scoffs and says in a jovial tone "Man, this librarian is probably the biggest nerd in Gensokyo. Who really needs this many books?"

Walking past the first two shelves, Tenshi turns her head back and forth to try and find the wandering little devil, catching a glimpse of her flying to the left of where she stands and immediately giving chase in hopes of finding the librarian herself. After all, what better place to find a Philosopher's Stone than close by the magician librarian herself? The Celestial manages to keep a fair distance away from the little devil while also keeping pace with her. Tenshi finds herself winding back and forth between the shelves while jumping over some of the fallen books. _"Another maze within a maze of a mansion? Ok sure, why the hell wouldn't this design decision not be seen as COMPLETE INANE?!" _Tenshi snaps inside of her mind as the pursuit of the little devil does not appear to be coming to an end anytime soon.

After another solid twenty seconds of running, the Celestial finally notices the little devil exiting the sea of shelves and going into a more secluded, rounded off area of the library with a ton of more neatly cleaned books and a table with a wax candle standing in the very center of it all. Fluttering her little bat wings, the little devil enthusiastically blurts out "Patchouli-sama, I found your-"

Before the little devil can finish she is forced back by a sudden gigantic beam flying across the room, which causes her to thrust her eyelids open and let out a faint shriek before collapsing onto the ground from pure shock. With the little devil down, Tenshi finds her curiosity piqued and runs as close to the secluded room as she can to see what is going on. Floating in the center of the room is a magician wearing what appears to be purple-striped pajamas and a nightcap with a crescent moon piece of jewelry on the front. There are many ribbons tied around her clothing and long purple hair, and the puffiness of her clothing made it hard to define her figure, but Tenshi guessed that as far as physical appearances go the magician was as old as she was.

Right now the magician held in her hand a dark brown covered book and quickly glanced back down at the fallen little devil with scornful eyes before looking on ahead and saying in a dismal tone of voice "Marisa, I don't have time for this. Leave the premises now before you are forced to suffer the consequences."

As Tenshi was quick to notice, the one called Patchouli Knowledge was being confronted by the Ordinary Magician Marisa Kirisame, who was riding sideways on her broom while flipping her mini-hakkero in her right hand with a shit eating grin on her face "Oh lighten up Patchouli, I just came here to ask for your help, there was no need for you to go and launch a miniature sun Danmaku my way." Marisa says in a casual tone of voice.

"And I will tell you again…" Patchouli glares at Marisa while a magical run circulates into existence below her body "I do not have time for your antics, nor do I wish to help you in whatever troubles you are dealing with."

Marisa clasps the mini-hakkero in her right hand and smiles, shrugging her shoulders while saying to Patchouli "Alright Patchouli, if you insist on being stubborn then we will have to settle this with a Spell Card duel. If my numbers are correct, you will be my Stage 5 boss, which means once I beat you I will be able to confront the culprit behind the recent incident!" The Ordinary Magician holds her hakkero in front of her body and fires a Master Spark, which counters another one of Patchouli's miniature suns, creating a blinding flash of energy that Tenshi is completely swept up in as the Celestial thinks to herself _"Geez, what type of madness have I run into? I hope Kokoro isn't having to witness anything like this…" _

Back with the menreiki, she is currently floating down a long, door-less hallway that is rather dark in its atmosphere. Kokoro feels a foreboding sensation coming from the very end of the hall, yet continues to press on despite the bits of hesitation floating in her mind. "Hmm…There doesn't appear to be any doors along the way…Maybe the library is at the end?" The Youkai says this quietly to herself as a light slowly comes into view at the very end of the hall.

Calmly entering the light, Kokoro is immediately taken aback by the room she has entered. The place is filled with a dark crimson glow coming from light brimming through the massive, medieval style stained glass window, and there is a one, blood red carpet leading up to a single throne standing directly below the stained glass. Immediately secluding herself behind one of the nearby engraved pillars keeping the room supported, the Youkai notices two particular figures near the throne. One was sitting and the other was standing in front of her.

The one standing loyally before the throne wears a pink/white and dark blue French maid's outfit with a somewhat frilly apron, short sleeves, and a green ribbon. Her silver hair is worn in long braids on both sides of her face with green bows at the end and a white maid headband on the top. Her tall, slender legs whose kneecaps are visible below the bottom of her maid skirt have three knives wrapped around the edge of her right hip. From Kokoro's point of view, she could not see the maid's grey eyes, but at the very least knew that this person was Sakuya Izayoi.

The second person on the throne looked a little less human than the maid. She was a short little figure, possibly even smaller than Kokoro herself. She wore a light-pink dress with red on both sleeves, a large red ribbon behind her waist with white stripes and a necklace around her neck featuring something similar to Caduceus. She has a pair of large black bat-like wings on her back, suggesting to the Youkai that this is the vampire that owns this mansion, Remilia Scarlet. As Kokoro makes this observation from a afar, she also takes not of the vampire's glowing red eyes, short, stylish light-blue hair and light-pink mob cap with a red ribbon with white stripes.

The maid Sakuya extends her arms gracefully before her mistress Remilia, carrying in the grasp of her hands a silver plate with a regal cup filled nearly to the brim with a blood colored tea. The vampire gently accepts the offering of tea from her loyal maiden and brings the cup to her lips, bearing her fangs for a moment as she sips a good portion of the tea right down her gullet. After lowering the cup from the front of her face Remilia said with a grateful smile "Thank you very much for the tea, Sakuya." Her tone was childish, but carried with it an air of refined charisma.

Sakuya folds the plate her held behind her body as she bowed and slowly swung her left arm in front of her chest, saying in response to her mistresses' compliment "I am glad it is to your liking, mistress. Do you want me to prepare yet another one?"

Remilia shakes her head slowly, saying kindly to her maid "Not at the moment, no. This tea should sustain my calm demeanor for the time being. But I would certainly like an update on the situation."

Sakuya lifts herself upright and nods her head, stating slowly in turn to her mistress "Patchouli is still hard at work in the library trying to find a solution to our problems, I have asked the Fairy Maids to retreat to their quarters for the time being, and Meiling…Meiling is still the same as she was before." The maid shows a bit sadness towards the last person, as if something terrible had befallen them.

Remilia nods her head and smirks out of curiosity towards that last matter Sakuya mentioned before inquiring "Remind me again of what happened to her?"

Sakuya nods obediently again and proceeds to say with her arms folded in front of her outfit "I went to check on Meiling in the earlier morning to see how she performing, but saw her taking a light early morning nap to get herself energized for the day…I smiled and accepted what she was doing, but as I began to head back into the mansion Meiling suddenly woke up and attacked me without warning. She blurted out some strange words and had an overall irritated demeanor about her, as if she had become a completely different person without warning. I quickly restrained her with Patchouli's help and brought her to her room, where Patchouli has kept her incapacitated her with magic until she can do something about her problem."

Remilia nodded her head, saying with dulled interest and a hint of concern towards her gatekeeper "I see…And you are saying this just happened suddenly? Did you see anyone nearby that might have been the culprit?"

These two inquiries are answered swiftly and respectfully by Sakuya in the form of "Yes, but I did not see anyone who could have done this to Meiling."

"Hmm…As frustrating as this is, it is also somewhat intriguing." Remilia mentions with a smile on her face as she sets her tea cup down on the arm of her throne and proceeds to say to Sakuya "And what of my sister, have you managed to let her know about what's going on?"

Sakuya nods her head, and says to her mistress with the utmost respect "Yes, I was certain to make that my top priority."

"Excellent work then Sakuya." Remilia's compliment earns her yet another graceful bow from Sakuya, who upon standing back up is greeted by her mistress saying in a knowledgeable voice "This problem is most likely caused by an emotional epidemic…After all Sakuya, wasn't there a rumor you heard just yesterday about someone people frolicking about in a manner that is most unbecoming of themselves?"

Sakuya nods her head and responds with a quiet yet respectful "Yes."

"I would suspect that Meiling was affected by this epidemic because she wasn't fully awake, or perhaps because she wasn't fully focused. So long as we keep calm and focused ourselves, we should be able to survive this until Patchouli can come up with a solution to this epidemic. But still, I have to wonder who would have the gall to cause an epidemic that would change people's emotions. If worst comes to worst, then I would like you to leave my side and find out who is responsible, Sakuya."

Remilia's words and polite request is met with a respectful nod from the maid as she gently says "If that is what you wish, mistress."

Kokoro, who has been standing inconspicuously behind the pillar this entire time, stops looking at the two figures and lays herself back first against the pillar, floating in mid-air while thinking to herself _"Why are people here being affected emotionally? I've never been around the Scarlet Devil Mansion before today…But still, that Remilia person mentioned sending her maid out to find Tenshi and I, even if they don't know its us. If Remilia can control fate, then she could make it so Sakuya would be successful in stopping us both, possibly through any means necessary." _

As Kokoro's mind becomes filled with fear and concern for both hers and Tenshi's safety, the Youkai is quick to flip partially around the pillar and look straight at the vampire mistress, closing her eyelids and focusing on her as she thinks to herself _"I can't let that happen, I need to incapacitate them both right away…" _

The Youkai summons forth a new mask beside her body as she focuses on Remilia. This mask depicts an agape mouthed middle-aged man with shut eyelids and a split mustache above his mouth. This was the Fuku no Kami, a mask based on the God of Happiness that represented the emotion of laughter. Remilia was swiftly captured by the effects of Kokoro's powers, her expression shifting to an exasperated grimace that catches Sakuya's attention rather quickly as she blurts out in concern "Mistress, what's going on?!"

Remilia, as a pale-blue aura of flame surrounds her body and she can feel her emotions changing against her will, struggles against these effects and says to her maid as her hands tightly clench the arms of her throne and her vampire strength breaks the wood apart "Sakuya…Whoever is responsible for this epidemic…Has infiltrated our mansion…They have…to be…in this room! Hurry and find them before…Hahaha…Hahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Remilia was too late in her warning to Sakuya, as she succumbs to the effects of Kokoro's powers and becomes a childish, laughing mess of a vampire whose strength if all but depleted as she loosens her grip on the arms of her throne and tumbles forth of it, rolling back and forth along the floor in a nearly endless fit of laughter that forces the maid to immediately take action and flip around, drawing three knives from nowhere between her right fingers while pulling out a silver pocket watch from behind her apron into her left hand. The observant Sakuya surveys the throne room with one left to right scan, and immediately catches the shape of the innocent Kokoro's body hovering beside the farthest right pillar.

However, as Sakuya activates her powers and stops time to allow herself to cover the distance between herself and this intruder, she fails to notice that she has been caught in the grasp of this Youkai's powers, and by the time she appears behind Kokoro and holds three knives to the front of the youngling's neck while saying to her "Whoever you are, surrender immediately and drop your hold on my mistress before I-"

While Kokoro flinches in shock at Sakuya's sudden appearance behind her body, she doesn't have much to worry about as the maid suddenly drops her knives and finds herself overcome by the very same fit of laughter that struck her mistress, which breaks the elegant demeanor of the maid and causes her to collapse on the floor behind the Youkai, her laughter echoing like a beautiful yet mature sounding cackle as Kokoro's Fuku no Kami vanishes and she slowly turns around to face the laughing Sakuya, her heart skipping a few beats as her eyes widen and the Raiden mask appears beside her face.

It takes a while for the Youkai to calm down, but when she does she thinks to herself _"I-I almost could have died just now…That was way too close for my liking…" _Kokoro thought of her own mortality as a Youkai and breathed a heavy sigh of relief that she was alive, the sound of which was nearly deafened by the laughter that echoed across the throne room. Seeing little to no reason to stick around, Kokoro quickly floated over to the hallway on the opposite side of the room and continued on her quest to find the library.

As the Youkai went down this hallway, the light faded and gave way to darkness once more. A slow route of travel through this straight hallway was only diverted for just a moment as Kokoro noticed an odd, single door standing off the left of where she stood. There was a rather foreboding, destructive aura radiating from the edges of the door that made the Youkai feel incredibly tense towards it. With a moment of thought, Kokoro realizes that this single door leads to the basement where Flandre Scarlet is being held, and slowly begins to creep away from the door as a response.

But before he moves even a few inches away from the door, it begins to creak open slowly, the aura growing stronger to the point that Kokoro flinches in fear and subconsciously begins to turn to face the door itself. A hand slightly elongated fingernails latched onto the side of the door, the being slowly coming into view from behind as Kokoro's heart skips many beats in stiff fear. She didn't know why she couldn't bring herself to move, why she froze in place as if awaiting the destroyer to emerge, but maybe there was a part of her that was interested in seeing the face of the devil's little sister that controlled her movements at that moment.

The being pulled away from the door and came into view, and Kokoro flinched briefly in surprise for the person's appearance was not what she was expecting. The girl was just as short as her sister, with similar red eyes and short blond hair that was tied into a single ponytail on the left side of her body. She wore a red dress and vest with a pink shirt underneath, and ruffled socks above her little shoes. Like her sister she wears a pink mob cap with a red ribbon attached, but hers appeared to be slightly damaged. Her wings appeared to be made of iron and prism shards, with the 8 crystal on her back to the tip of the wings arranged in the order of light blue, blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, light green and finally light blue again. But all of this was not what surprised Kokoro. No, what really caught the Youkai's attention was that Flandre Scarlet wore in front of her right eye a monocle with a chain wrapped around the ear, and had a simple cup of warm mint tea held in her left hand.

Tilting her head in confusion, Flandre said in a surprisingly mature yet regal accent unbefitting for a girl her age "I say stranger, have you come to join us in a round of merry tea time?" The behavior of the devil's little sister was so very different from Kokoro's expectations that all she could really do is make a full tilt of her head to the right and look on in stoic bewilderment before lightly saying "Huh?" towards Flandre.

Back with Tenshi, the Celestial has managed to keep herself hidden as Patchouli and Marisa played out their spell card duel down to the letter. However, victory eventually goes to the Ordinary Magician, leaving Patchouli to descend to the ground with an irritated expression on her face as she says to Marisa in a tone matching her mood "Very well Marisa, you've defeated me. But there's nothing to find here, just leave this place now and borrow a couple books if you so desire, but don't disturb what I'm trying to do."

Patchouli turns back towards the table and lets out a pained cough as she lays her book down on the surface of the table. Marisa is surprised by what Patchouli said to her, noting that whatever is going on in the Scarlet Devil Mansion must be pretty serious if the librarian is so willing to let her go about with her book borrowing. "Ummm…Wow, sorry for not reading the mood correctly Patchy. But damn it, I beat a Stage 5 boss without getting any information on the true enemy. Crap! Guess I'll just have to go wander around a bit more and hope for the best. See you around then!" And with those words a single snap of her fingers, Marisa repositions herself on the broom and blasts off out of the mansion, surprisingly not picking up a single book on her way out.

After the Ordinary Magician has left, Patchouli lets out a light sigh while the little devil finally awakens from her earlier shock, the books she was carrying still lying on her stomach as she quickly and embarrassingly picks them up, standing upright with the help of her wings and after looking at Patchouli she blurts out in a tone of deep concern "Patchouli-sama, are you ok?!"

Flying over to help her master out, the little devil is greeted by Patchouli turning her head to glance at her before she says in a ragged voice "I'm fine Koakuma…Please place those books on the table for me." Koakuma agrees and drops the books post-haste, folding back and bowing her head before asking her master with enthusiasm "What else do you require, Patchouli-sama?"

As Patchouli lays her hands on the table with both hers and Koakuma's backs unknowingly turned towards the Celstial, Tenshi silently begins to walk around the edge of the room to make her way for the outlet at the western end, while the librarian murmurs to herself and quickly glances back at Koakuma, saying to her "If you could please grab that bottle I received just recently, I would really appreciate it Koakuma…"

The little devil obediently nods, and with a zip through the skies of the library Koakuma tracks down a blue glass vial on top of one of the highest shelves and descends to give it to her master. With a gentle pluck from the little devil's hands Patchouli pops the lid right off and gulps down the thick liquid that is inside in a single swig, tossing the vial itself down onto the table a moment later after rubbing any excess liquid off of her lips. Closing her eyelids and smiling, Patchouli says to her assistant "Thank you very much Koakuma…You are dismissed from my services for today. Please get some rest until this epidemic blows over."

Koakuma nods her head and quickly flies away from her master obediently. Patchouli closes her eyelids and lets out a light sigh as most of her body hovers over her book, while Tenshi has almost escaped this room and headed into another hallway, her cautious footsteps making her feel confident that she will be able to avoid being detected until Patchouli asks in a barely subtle tone of annoyance "And just where do you think you're going?"

Tenshi freezes in place almost instantly as the magician librarian raises her left finger a shoots of a piercing bolt of lightning from a small rune at the end of her fingertip that scorches the air through the hallway that the Celestial was planning to go down. With a sharp smirk, Tenshi grasps her Hisou no Tsurugi tightly and watches as Patchouli pulls herself away from the table and turns to face the Celestial while her open spell book floating in the air in front of her body. "Well, I have to say that I'm glad my assumptions were correct." The librarian states with firm confidence in her voice.

Keeping a smirk on her face, Tenshi says to Patchouli "Heh, how did you know I was here?"

Closing her eyelids, Patchouli calmly explains to the Celestial "Your not so subtle incursion attempt was easy to spot thanks to the monitoring spells I set up across my library just in case someone tried to invade straight on. Now tell me, Tenshi Hinanawi…Why have you made the foolish decision of descending from your pitiable Heaven?"

Tenshi, with a light laugh coming from behind her teeth, says bluntly to Patchouli as she holds her sword out in front of her slanted body "I've come for a Philosopher's Stone. It would be in your best interest to simply hand it over now and save yourself another defeat, librarian."

Patchouli, with her eyelids still closed, says in a simple tone of voice "Is that so? Then you are welcome to start off with whatever spell card you like if you are so confident in your abilities, Celestial."

Tenshi grins and takes the librarian up on her offer, and with a raise of her left arm the Celestial summons forth a spell card and holds its spinning form around in mid-air as she lowers her arm and swing at it with her Hisou no Tsurugi to activate it while declaring its name "Keystone 'Kaname Funnel!"

However, even after the card has been broken and a few seconds have passed, nothing appears to signify the start of a spell card duel. Tenshi is puzzled greatly by this, even more-so when the librarian creaks her eyelids open slightly and glares at the Celestial while rising a bit off the ground and folding one hand underneath her book. "I gave you permission to start, Tenshi Hinanawi. Or can you perhaps not fight me now?"

Tenshi chuckles, her haughtiness breaking slightly in her voice as she swings her left arm out and says to Patchouli "Hehe, I'm not going to bother wasting time with a spell card duel when I can simply bury you under your books with a single earthquake!"

The Celestial focuses incredibly hard on the ground in the library, using her powers in an attempt to make good on her threat to the librarian, only for nothing to occur after ten good seconds of deep concentration. Tenshi opens her eyelids and blinks twice, muttering out a "Huh?" once in confusion before thinking in disbelief _"What the hell? Why aren't my powers working?" _

Patchouli opens her eyelids all the way and stares down at Tenshi condescendingly, saying as she floats off of the ground "The look of helpless confusion suits you, Celestial. You should have known better than to try and mess with twice over."

Tenshi grits her teeth and jabs her Hisou no Tsurugi at Patchouli, saying in a slightly unhinged tone of voice "What did you do, magician?!"

"…What do you think I did? I've left you almost completely powerless." Patchouli says in response to the Celestial's angered inquiry as she gently turns the pages of her book. Tenshi blurts out in turn "That's impossible, there's no way you could have pulled that off!"

"Is it an impossibility? You forget, in Gensokyo, all that is impossible can become reality." Patchouli calmly states to Tenshi, going on to mention as the Celestial grimaces "I was tricked once by you, Tenshi Hinanawi, but ever since that day I've worked countless hours coming up with ways to counteract your abilities on the off-chance that you were to ever return. There was just one key component that I was missing, and a particular someone helped me with that just recently as they gave a warning that the Scarlet Devil Mansion would soon be invaded."

Tenshi could only guess as to who the mysterious benefactor of Patchouli's was, but doesn't get to say anything on the matter as the librarian holds her book in front of her body as glowing orbs of fire begin to float around her. "Let me explain it all to you, Tenshi Hinanawi…You see, I have activated a spell within a 5 mile radius of the Scarlet Devil Mansion that has tricked every last bit of Earth based material into thinking that its Water, thus negating your ability to control it and conjure up Earthquakes. Then, my partner has briefly deactivated the Spell Card rules so I can fight you without you using your craftiness with Danmaku to your advantage, and finally I took a potion that will temporarily leave me without the burden of my asthma so I can fight you to the fullest extent of my abilities. Without Spell Cards and your power over the Earth, all you have is a simple sword…I've pretty much rendered you a normal, mortal human, Celestial."

As all of this information seeps into Tenshi's ears, she can't help but be both awe-struck and aggravated at both Patchouli and her benefactor, who she determines the identity of and says in her mind _"Damn you, Yukari…You are still proving to be a thorn in my side." _

Tenshi nonetheless grips his Hisou no Tsurugi tightly, even though she knows all too well that her sword won't be very effective against magic. As Patchouli looks down upon the Celestial with serious eyes, she says firmly to her as the fireballs float ominously around her body "Now I shall do what Shinigamis, shrine maidens, and other weaker magicians have failed to do and send you to the place of your final judgment, Celestial. Run, Tenshi Hinanawi, even though you shall not escape my domain alive…"

_Next Time: Scarlet Sky is Falling Down_


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Scarlet Incursion II: Downfall of Scarlet**

"Hehehe…" Through the nervous gritting of her teeth, Tenshi laughs at Patchouli's firm boast, gently closing her eyelids and laying the front of her left fingers along her chest as she slightly bows and says to the librarian "I am deeply flattered by how much effort you've put into stopping little old harmless me, but surely you have better things to worry about than killing me."

Patchouli slants her eyebrows and looks down at Tenshi, caring little for her false bravery as she notices the nervous twitch in her right hand with just an observant glance. "You're right. Even though you are truly the most despicable being in all of Gensokyo, you aren't the biggest possible threat. I should be putting more of my efforts into stopping a possible Oni uprising or an inevitable Lunarian invasion…But instead I focused mostly on you, because you actually showed that you are a threat to not just myself, but also my comrades in the mansion. The other two threats are only possibilities, but so long as anyone continues to let you live you will come back and threaten Gensokyo time after time again. There is a method to your madness, in that you try and cure the boredom that has blended so perfectly into your brattish demeanor, but the way you go about such insanity makes you unpredictable to the core."

Tenshi shrugs her shoulders and smiles, saying in regards to Patchouli's 'compliments' "What can I say? That's just a part of my charm."

"However…" Patchouli's additional remark causes the Celestial to lift her head up and open her eyelids as the librarian scratches the bottom of her chin and proceeds to say "Even though I know for a fact that you are responsible for this emotional epidemic, I can't determine just how you managed to pull it off. You've shown the full extent of your powers before, and emotional manipulation is not one of them…Hmph, I suppose I should stop lingering on theories and ponderings, I do not have forever to take advantage of my full strength, and I am quite positive that all it will take to put an end to your disastrous shenanigans."

"_**Fire Sign 'Agni Shine'" **_Patchouli discards all pretenses of conversation between herself and the Celestial and casts a spell from her book in bold. A bright red rune glows and spread from the pages, causing the fireballs surrounding her body to launch out in the form of bright solar streaks that all converge towards where Tenshi currently stands. Though most of her powers had been disabled, the agility of the Celestial that was kept in her body allowed her to swiftly escape the attack with a dash to the left. The convergence of fireballs creates a scorching pillar of flame that spreads around the base of the impact point and appears to incinerate all the books in its path.

Tenshi chuckles at how the librarian was so foolishly destroying her own books in order to get at her, but when the flames subside the Celestial is shocked by the fact that the books are entirely unharmed. Patchouli turns her body to face Tenshi and says to her as she flips the pages of her book with but her mind and the fireballs around her fade away "You really think I'd be so foolish as to not protect my collection of books from my own magic?" Clamping the pages down with a thrust of air from nowhere, the librarian firmly glares at Tenshi as a silver rune is summoned from her book and she declares the name of her next spell boldly _**"Metal Sign 'Silver Dragon'"**_

From the sky emerges a glowing, heavenly rift of silver as a dragon embodying the pure essence of that bountiful metal rips right into the confines of the library and descends towards Tenshi in a single stroke of movement, performing not even a single diversion along its path as it crashes against the floor of the library, just nearly missing the Celestial as she leaps back out of the way of the spell. However, Tenshi could literally feel the raw magical power coming from the steel dragon as the whole of its body crashes against the floor and shakes the foundation of the library.

As a ring of dust forces the Celestial to hold her arms up in order to avoid being blinded, Patchouli wastes no time in preparing another spell with a single turn of the page, though this time she holds her fingers above the binding of the book while calling out the name of the spell _**"Moon Sign 'Silent Selene'"**_ Folding all but her pointer into her palm, Patchouli traces a crescent moon into a pure white rune that is summoned from the book, and in an instant a glowing pearl circle appears around Tenshi's body. With but a thought the librarian commands the circle to activate, causing thin yet towering lasers of pure moonlight to etch itself through the air in multiple segments along the surface area of the circle. The Celestial tries to leap out of the way with a backwards hop, but one of the lasers nicks her against her left knuckles before she makes it out of the circle.

The attack burned her knuckles, but not to the point that the heat managed to penetrate beyond the skin. There was now a dark red scorch mark embedded onto Tenshi's knuckles that radiated with pain, and for once in her life the Celestial couldn't bring herself to put on a look of bravado or make a nonchalant remark towards her opponent. She twitched with fear over the fact that she was wounded, and she felt for the first time a feeling of absolute vulnerability that only left her both scared and desperate. _"I-I-I…I don't know what to do…" _

Tenshi's thoughts would be answered for her by the librarian, who flips the pages back a few and readies another spell, this time keeping the book afloat in front of her body as she raises both hands into the air and summons forth a red rune from the pages _**"First Card 'St. Elmo's Explosion'!" **_From the rune appears a sphere of fire compressed into a shape roughly the size of Patchouli's head, and after the fireball is held between her palms the librarian swings it out at Tenshi. The Celestial's survival instincts kick in upon seeing the glow of the flames, and she quickly leaps back down the nearby hallway to avoid being incinerated by the fireball as it collides with the ground.

Tenshi, after seeing the shockwave of fire upon the attack's impact, is forced to duck upon landing from her jump as the fireball ricochets towards the ceiling and becomes a powerful blazing comet that tears through the roof of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and dissipates quickly in the outside mist. The Celestial finds a bit of focus in herself after this attack, and with a clenching of her left fist that tears at the burnt skin on her knuckles she takes on a 'do-or-die' mentality and thinks to herself _"Focus Tenshi, you came here in search of a Philosopher's Stone. Once you grab that you can simply escape this accursed librarian with Kokoro and rid her of her advantage…"_

Turning herself around, Tenshi makes a mad sprint for the deeper parts of the library, while Patchouli pursues her through the sky with cold, killing intent brimming from her eyes as she flips the pages of her book and boldly declares _**"Fire Sign 'Agni Shine'" **_once more, summoning forth a series of small fireballs that are launched forth and home in on the Celestial as she runs between the towering shelves of books in the library. Tenshi proves to be just slightly faster than the fireballs, but a couple explosions nearly knock her off of her feet and force her to break a sweat out of nervousness. But as she runs, the Celestial can only help but ponder in her head _"Man…I hope Kokoro is having better luck than I am right now…" _

As of this moment, the menreiki Youkai has been confronted by the dangerous, insane and super powered destroyed hidden within the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Flandre Scarlet…Only to be greatly surprised and confused when the vampire gave out a posh sounding invite towards her for tea. Kokoro left Flandre with but a simple puzzled reaction when we last checked up on her, and now the vampire responds with a quiet "I asked if you wanted to join us in a cup of tea. But I must say, I have to ponder the reason as to what you are even doing here in the first place, stranger." Flandre lifts her tea cup up and takes a light sip from it, twitching slightly out of merriment as she lowers the cup back in front of her chest and looks up slightly at the puzzled Kokoro.

"Aren't you the little sister of the devil and the insane destroyer of everything, Flandre Scarlet?" Kokoro tilts her head and asks stoically. Flandre's eyebrows slant a millimeter and she twirls her fingers in and out of the teacup handle gracefully, somehow keeping the cup itself floating in front of her body as she mumbles out in a disappointed yet elegant voice "Ah, so it seems there are quite a few nasty rumors being spread out about me yet again…What is your name, stranger?"

Flandre seems to take little offense to Kokoro's remark regarding her nature and politely asks for her name, and after straightening her head the menreiki responds with "I am Hata no Kokoro, but you can just call me Kokoro for short."

"A wonderful sounding name for such an interesting looking individual. Please, I urge you to follow me to my room for a spot of tea, there is a lot we must discuss." Flandre, with tea cup in hand, walks back down the stairs to the left of where she stands after repeating her invite to Kokoro.

The menreiki is quite certainly conflicted on what to do at this point, for while she feels a bit uncomfortable following Flandre into her basement Kokoro recognized that she didn't know where to go inside of the mansion and a friendly face might be able to direct her to the library if she plays her cards right. Thus with a calm float, Kokoro follows Flandre down the long, dark flight of stairs towards the basement. The bright crystal wings of the vampire makes it easy for the Youkai to see where she is going, but the descent into the basement doesn't take long enough for Kokoro to worry about any vision loss anyways.

After making it past the final step, Flandre folds her wings inward and enters her room, which is brightened by a diamond chandelier on the ceiling, and with a light bow the polite vampire says to her company "Pardon me for my sudden departure my friends, but I have found us another guest to join us in merry tea." Kokoro follows behind in a matter of seconds after Flandre advances forward, and at the doorway the Youkai merely widens her eyes and pauses in surprise.

The room looked rather eloquent, with a soft rounded bed fit for a queen visible at the end of the room with crimson sheets gilded by golden string surrounded on both sides by blood red veils that were draped in a slanted matter and tied around the center by dark purple ropes. The light from the ceiling made Kokoro feel happy for a reason she couldn't quite explain, and the mask beside her face changes to the Ko-omote to match those very inner feelings. Laying against the back of the bed was a single teddy bear roughly half the size of Flandre herself, but the right ear was visibly destroyed. Kokoro's focus then moves towards the little vampire herself as she sees her walk towards a fancy, sleek oval table made of firm oak that is just the right height for someone her size.

But it was who sat at the table that greatly surprised Kokoro. There were two other Flandres sitting on the right side of the table, both of them looking very identical to the original in appearance but not in demeanor. The farthest Flandre was smiling brightly with her eyelids closed and a rugged plaid scarf wrapped around her neck that made Kokoro think of someone else she knew, and instinctively labeled this Flandre as being "Motherly". The closest Flandre had a second teddy bear cuddled up against her body and seemed to be timidly curled up in her chair, with her expression being rather melancholy in appearance. Kokoro thus labeled this Flandre as being "Shy".

The first Flandre Kokoro met, who has now been given the label of "Polite", pulls out a chair for the new quest to their tea party and says with a draw of her arms towards the seat "Please Kokoro, sit down and make yourself comfortable." Polite Flandre had a smile on her face as she invited the Youkai to the chair, and after another couple seconds of observing the people at the table Kokoro floats over and sits herself down on the seat, her skirt flattening out along her legs as she gently folds her arms in front of her body and lays her hands on the cloth of her skirt like a proper young lady should.

Thanking Kokoro with a smile, the Polite Flandre moves towards her own seat on the left side of the table, pulling the chair out and sitting down prim and proper after laying her tea cup down on a pearl plate that rested atop a silk woven mat. The Motherly Flandre turns her head towards Kokoro and puts her tea cup down, saying in a tender yet very young tone of voice "It is a pleasure to meet you Kokoro. My name is Flandre Scarlet, and I assume you've already met my colleague, Flandre Scarlet."

The Shy Flandre says nothing, curling further into her chair after awkwardly glaring at Kokoro, only for the Polite Flandre to look at her with a gentle glare and saying in a prompting tone "Flandre, don't be rude to our guest, introduce yourself."

Shy Flandre pokes her head up a bit and says in a quiet, meek tone of voice "H-Hello..I'm Flandre Scarlet…" Shy Flandre sinks back towards her bear and pets the top of it, keeping mostly to herself.

With all three Flandres identifying themselves by the same name, Kokoro chose to just stick to her adjective labeling for each one of them. Polite Flandre turns towards Kokoro and lets out a light sigh towards the Shy Flandre's timid behavior in the face of company before asking her "Would you like some tea, Kokoro?"

Kokoro, not wanting to be rude to the people who invited her despite her confusion, nodded her head. Polite Flandre picked up a spare cup on the silver tray in the center of the table and placed it on top of the plate that rested in front of Kokoro's body. Polite Flandre then began to motion her arms towards the three pots on the tray and listed off the different flavors of tea in the form of a series of inquiries "Mint? Chamomile? Oolong?"

"…I think I'll take some of the Oolong." Kokoro replies after taking a moment to consider her options. With a graceful nod of the head, Polite Flandre picks up the middle pot and leans across the table to pour the hot liquid into Kokoro's cup, gently pulling back just seconds before the cup is filled and placing the pot back onto the tray.

Wrapping her little fingers around the handle, both Polite Flandre and Motherly Flandre lift their teacups up to their lips and take a quiet sip, letting out happy sighs befitting their demeanors and swiftly lowering their cups back down onto their plates. Kokoro is reluctant to drink from her cup as well. She's had tea before, but never any of varieties shown before her now. If this Oolong Tea tasted terrible, she feared a repulsive reaction would occur and the Flandres would be deeply offended. Still, it would be equally rude for the Youkai to not accept their tea…

As Kokoro pondered this, she heard a quiet whisper coming to the right and saw the Shy Flandre lifting her tea cup up gently and taking a sip, showing a bit of interest in her eyes towards the Youkai as she curls a light smile and places her cup back down on the plate. Kokoro looks down at the tea cup as the liquid lightly ripples from the center, and without any further hesitation she picks the cup up and lifts it towards her lips to take a sip. The tea tasted a little sweet, almost like she was sipping down a light dosage of honey, and Kokoro actually found herself swallowing down more than a little amount of tea thanks to how delightful the taste was.

After putting the cup down Kokoro let out a light, stoic sigh and opened her eyelids, not even realizing there were shut as she was so wrapped up in how good the tea tasted. Polite Flandre turns towards Kokoro and asks her "Now that we've had a nice little sip of tea, would you be ever so kind as to explain what you are doing here?"

The menreiki flinched for a second, in her mind reminding herself that she shouldn't reveal her goals to the enemy even if they have been polite to her, and she definitely shouldn't mention the existence of Tenshi in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. So instead Kokoro unknowingly made like her Celestial friend and lied, saying to the three Flandres "I was invited to be a guest here by your librarian, and I was trying to find my way around the mansion to get to the library with no guidance. The mansion appears to be empty at the moment, and then I ran into you. I have to admit, I thought you were mentally unstable…And I also thought that there was only one of you."

Motherly Flandre faces Kokoro as the Polite Flandre nods her head to show an understanding of the Youkai's motives, saying in a tender voice "My dear, we are not mentally unstable…We just used to have a bit of difficulty controlling our emotions. But I can see how people would assume that we are not right in the head."

Kokoro saw a bit of a connection towards Flandre's problems when it came to controlling emotions, but found herself pondering what the Motherly one meant when she said 'Used to'. "You used to have difficulty? What happened to help you gain control?" The Youkai asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

Polite Flandre interjects at this point, saying to the young menreiki as she folds her arms along the edge of the table and leans forward slightly "That's just the oddest matter…We literally have no idea what happened."

Kokoro's intrigue is piqued once more, but she doesn't say anything and instead lets the Polite Flandre lean back and close her eyelids as she recounts the events that transpired before she arrived here. "If the truth wasn't easy enough to perceive, I will take a great deal of honor in revealing to you that all three of us are merely copies of the original Flandre Scarlet. However, all of us share her memories when we are born. When she created the three of us, the original Flandre was breaking down mentally for unknown reasons, and commanded us to bind her in place somewhere safe and make sure to not let her older sister know that she was being affected like the gatekeeper was."

Once again this mysterious change in the gatekeeper is brought up in relation to the original Flandre Scarlet, which only makes Kokoro feel gravely concerned about the situation seeing as once again she knew that she wasn't involved in changing Flandre's emotional state. The Polite Flandre continued on, saying to the Youkai "So we did as the original commanded and bound her in place with crimson chains that dampen her powers over destruction. But not long afterwards we were also affected by the same epidemic that caught our original and the gatekeeper and in a way became three different versions of Flandre Scarlet herself instead of the exact copies we were before. As confusing as this has been for us all though, we have learned to cope with the matter for the time being and have decided to just patiently wait for the librarian to deal with this epidemic."

Kokoro determines a frightening implication based on everything the Polite Flandre just said, and is quick to blurt out stoically "But if you go back to the way you were before won't that be considered a suicide of your individuality?"

The Polite Flandre let out a jolly good laugh right away in regards to what Kokoro said, puzzling the menreiki greatly until Polite Flandre elaborates with "Heavens no, Kokoro. Whenever we are removed from existence our memories and anything we have learned are transferred to the original, which I would assume includes our changes in personality and emotional states. We'll live on in the mind of the original Flandre Scarlet, and whenever the time comes for clones to be made we will likely be back. You see? We truly have no reason to worry about our own lives. We are more concerned about the safety of the maid and our older sister."

Kokoro feels incredibly awkward upon hearing this, especially since she just turned those two into laughing messes just minutes ago. But this awkwardness is broken by the Shy Flandre, who takes a light glance over at the Youkai and says in a meek tone towards her "K-Kokoro-san…D-Do you have an older sister, o-or someone you look up to as an older sister?"

The menreiki didn't really know how to respond to such a question. She tilted her head in confusion and tried to think of an answer, but out of all the people she knew in her life Kokoro could only think of one person that even remotely fit the role of an older sister figure, and that person was Tenshi. But as the Youkai thinks of Tenshi in such a manner her face is overcome with a gentle blush that surprises her completely. "U-Umm…" Kokoro is left feeling incredibly awkward, and the Shy Flandre is the one tilting her head in puzzlement while the Motherly and Polite ones look at Kokoro's blush.

However, this awkward scene is interrupted by a embittered voice, which yells out in regards to the subject matter "Older sisters are two-faced liars who make promises only to never follow up on them!"

All figures turn towards a patch of shadows on the east side of the room, where another Flandre Scarlet, most certainly the original, was seen bound to the wall with many crimson chains wrapped tightly around her body. The original Flandre's eyes were wide with intense frenzy, her lips curled into a devilish snarl as her right eye glows in the darkened shade creepily. "Wow, how could you say such a thing about our older sister, Flandre?" The Polite Flandre said without a hint of unease in her voice as she addressed the bitter original.

"Oh please, like that arrogant little bitch deserves to be praised to the high heavens just because she's my older sister! Over 500 years ago that bitch locked me up in this basement and promised to one day find out how to get me to live outside the mansion as a emotionally stable person, but obviously that was just a load of bullshit in the end wasn't it?!" The original Flandre expressed a deeply intense dislike towards Remilia that stemmed from her broken state, but this painted a rather interesting picture on the relationship between the sisters in Kokoro's eyes.

But the Polite Flandre didn't flinch at the original's comments and instead took the Chamomile tea pot and gently held it out towards the original, saying in a calm, empathetic voice "Would you like a cup of tea my fair original? Perhaps a sip or two would help calm your tense nerves."

"FUCK YOUR TEA!" The original Flandre exclaims furiously, and though the Polite Flandre is a little saddened by the response she only shrugs her shoulders and begins to put the pot away while saying to the original "Well, I suppose that's a fairly polite sounding 'No' by your standards…"

But before the subject of older sisters could be brought up again by any of the Flandre copies, a powerful rupture shakes the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and a vacuum of air is heard echoing in the distance. The Motherly Flandre looks up and says "Oh dear, Patchouli must be dealing with an intruder…Tsk tsk, perhaps we should head up to the library and help her out."

Kokoro flinches and regains focus on her main objective as she puts two and two together and realizes that Tenshi must have made it to the library and grabbed Patchouli's attention by mistake. Pushing herself out of the chair and holding her hand out as the Flandres begin to rise from their chairs, Kokoro says stoically towards them "Wait, allow me to help your librarian out with the intruder. If you could just give me directions to the library…"

The Polite Flandre is the first to sit herself back down, and with a gentle smile she says to Kokoro "Ascend the stairs and take a right. Go back to the foyer and take the closest door on the left. Keep going through about ten corners of hallways and you'll see the library off to the left. Good luck, and thank you very much for joining us in tea time."

As the mansion trembles once more, Kokoro nods her head and flies away from the table, ascending the staircase as the Polite Flandre goes for her tea cup and prepares to sip it, saying in an honest tone of voice "She was a lovely individual, I hope she will come back to visit another time, don't you two agree?" the Motherly and Shy Flandres nod their heads in agreement, and the three are left to their tea as the mansion continues to tremble from Patchouli's spells.

Back in the library, Tenshi has been running almost nonstop for the last few minutes away from the wrathful spells of the librarian. The nearly infinite maze of shelves and books has left the Celestial feeling lost and cornered, which is exactly what Patchouli was wanting her to feel. Tenshi was a mouse, and the librarian was the lion in hot pursuit. If it wasn't for her high endurance, Tenshi would have been out of breath by now. But her luck involving avoiding the spells in these narrows corridors has not been kind to her. There are tatters on the back of her skirt and small bleeding scars across her right arm, and now she was having a hard time focusing on keeping the Hisou no Tsurugi in existence.

Tenshi wanted to find the Philosopher's Stone quickly, but knew she wouldn't get a break to search unless she managed to block the librarian's path. A four way junction appears up ahead, and the Celestial plans to keep going straight with an idea on her mind, but after launching more fireballs Patchouli turns the pages of her book and slams them down on a point where an emerald seal rises up in front of her body. The librarian pounds down on that seal and the mansion trembles instantly as she boldly declares _**"Earth Metal Sign 'Emerald Megalopolis'!" **_

Emerging from the ground in front of the Celestial is a large emerald pillar with a strange inscription lined along the top, and Tenshi is forced to skid to a stop and quickly change her course. A pillar rising to the left forces Tenshi to dash to the right before she is boxed in, and Patchouli follows the Celestial down that hallway. As Tenshi runs, she decides to put her plan into action to blow the librarian off of her back for just a bit. With the Hisou no Tsurugi grasped in hand the Celestial waits for the end of a shelve to appear and immediately cuts into the wood, dragging her blade along the entire bottom section until she reaches the end of the shelf.

With the support of the shelving disabled it begins to wobble back and forth, the towering rows of books falling out of place and coming down like an avalanche upon the flying Patchouli, who merely turns her head and flinches in brief surprised as she is promptly buried under the books. Tenshi looks back at the pile of books and grins, thinking to herself _"Should have protected your books from my sword, sucker!" _

Looking back on ahead, the Celestial's Hisou no Tsurugi vanishes as that bit of exertion prevented her from staying focused on the projection of the blade. Breathing in and out repeatedly as she makes it down to the end of the current hallway, Tenshi emerges in a circular area similar to the room she encountered Patchouli in, but this area was much larger in scope and appeared to be more personally tailored for the librarian's magical activities. There were glowing crystals on the ceiling and a multitude of ancient spell books lining the walls of shelves, and there was a pentagram pattern on the floor in the center of the room.

But the most major thing that the Celestial noticed was a glass casing at the very southern end of the room with a diamond shaped dark blue stone glowing on a platinum stand. This stone radiated with intense magical power, which to Tenshi was major signal that this was the Philosopher's Stone that she was seeking. Rushing across the room and standing in front of the glass with a big mischievous smile on her face, the Celestial takes her undamaged right fist and punches through the glass with surprising ease, wrapping her fingers around the stone itself and pulling it out as the shards of glass fall around the stand.

The light of the Philosopher's Stone glows in Tenshi's red eyes, making her grin the widest grin she has ever had as she feels such overwhelming power tingling through every delicate part of her body. _"Oh man, me and Kokoro can do SOOOO much with this Philosopher's Stone its not even funny. That librarian was holding back on such a powerful object? If she used this against me the first time we fought then she might have actually beaten me without any of her dirty tricks. But whatever, its mine now." _Tenshi turns around and flips the powerful stone once through the air, smiling arrogantly as she begins to make her way out of the library.

But as Tenshi crosses the center of the pentagram the Philosopher's Stone releases a bright shine that catches the Celestial's attention and makes her pause for one second. However, the pentagram activates just a moment later and Tenshi finds herself suddenly crashing stomach first along the floor, her body being pinned down by an unknown force as her arms are left crossed in front of her head and her legs straightened out behind her body. Some strange, wavy energy rises up from around the pentagram and distorts the air, making Tenshi's vision blurred as she sees Patchouli floating into this pocket of her library with her main spell book slightly battered and her body inflicted with many light bruises.

With her right hand hovering over a space-colored rune on the center of the book, Patchouli boldly states the name of the spell she used on Tenshi _**"Gravitational Sign 'Field of the Outer Gods'"**_

Tenshi tries to grit her teeth, but finds the very action strenuous to the core with the high amount of gravity keeping her pressed against the ground. Working against the pain in her bones and muscles to lift her head up and glare furiously at Patchouli, the Celestial still feels the Philosopher's Stone grasped in her hand and realizes right away what just happened. But the librarian is the one to detail such plans, for Tenshi herself cannot move her lips.

"How easy it was to guide the mouse to a trap. Remember our first encounter and how you blatantly told me that you planned to destroy the Hakurei Shrine? I overlooked such details in the past, but now that I know the type of person you are I knew that if I asked for your motives you would tell me them without hesitation and I'd be able to use that to push you towards one of my traps. To think that you would come after my Philosopher's Stone though…Even if its in its experimental stages, it still is able to react perfectly in conjunction with the pentagrams I have set up across the library for any new spells I have been working on recently. Now you are trapped under the weight of 500x Earth's normal gravity, and completely under my mercy for the next forty-five seconds. But I won't need that long to put an end to your life. Even though it will set me back a good few months, I am more than willing to destroy the Philosopher's Stone if it means dealing with a major problem to Gensokyo's safety."

Flipping the pages of her spell book for what would assumedly be her final spell, Patchouli stops on two pages that burst into harmless flames as the pressure of the air heats up immensely and the light of determination flares in the librarian's pupils as she boldly declares slowly _**"Sun Sign 'Royal Flare'!"**_

Raising her arms into the air as her body straightens and her spell book clamps shut, Patchouli begins to summon forth a giant, almost see-through sun that grows in size exponentially over a rather short period of time. There was no heat radiating from the sun at the moment, for the librarian was keeping it all contained inside this sphere until she would unleash it all upon the Celestial. However, some streaks of solar energy break out and singe the ground below the circumference of Patchouli's body, but none of them giving her a reason to feel concerned as she focused entirely on the gravity pinned Tenshi.

But the librarian was so focused on killing her target that she hadn't been paying attention to her own library for the last few minutes, and because of this the menreiki Kokoro slowly appears behind Patchouli with a shocked expression on her face upon seeing Tenshi's condition on the floor. The Celestial gazes up to the best of her ability and sees Kokoro behind Patchouli, and with what little energy she has left she whispers "Game…Over…" towards the librarian. With her keen ability to read lips, Patchouli notices Tenshi's words and raise an eyebrow in puzzlement.

The Celestial then makes good use of her deceptive abilities and forces a fake cough of pain through her mouth, adding saliva to the mix for good measure before she uses most of her strength in order to say in a false tone of brutal agony "You…inhuman monster! I have done nothing to you…and you wish to kill me for such petty…reasons?!"

Patchouli didn't understand the sudden change in Tenshi's behavior, but the Celestial was hoping for such a thing. All she wanted was for Kokoro to be sold on her agony and react, so when the librarian glares down at the Celestial with suspicions and says "What are you talking about…" the Youkai's somewhat angered response of "What are you doing to Tenshi?!" brought a victorious smirk to Tenshi's face.

Patchouli flinches upon hearing a new being in her library, and with the Royal Flare still being held above her body the librarian turns around to face Kokoro. "Wait a second…You're the emotional manipulating menreiki, Hata no Kokoro." As the librarian identifies the second infiltrator correctly, her eyes widen and she quickly arrives at the truth regarding Tenshi's appearance here today. With a firm glare towards Kokoro, Patchouli says in an all-too serious tone of voice "Then the only way to solve this epidemic is-"

The mask besides Kokoro's face changes to that of a silver fox, and her eyes burn with a furious intent towards Patchouli as the menreiki states in a cold, stoic voice "You will do nothing else, librarian."

Spawning beside Kokoro's extending right arm is the Noh Mask Uba, which looks very similar to the head of an old woman. Grasping the front of the mask in her hand, the menreiki charges forward faster than Patchouli can react and slams the mask against the librarian's face, forcibly attempting to have her take on the emotions buried within the mask since the method would no longer be viable. Patchouli is forced to break her concentration on the Royal Flare, and as it shatters and her main spell book drops to the ground behind her body the librarian uses all of her mental prowess to resist the power of the menreiki Youkai.

Kokoro presses hard against the mask, pushing all of her willpower into the Uba to break through Patchouli's concentration, with all the excess energy that the mask can't contain spilling out in waves of solid blue flames from the edge of the mask itself. The librarian appears to be winning her battle against Kokoro for a time, but without warning a burst of energy occurs behind the Uba mask and Patchouli is launched like a bullet across the room. Her body collides with the stable center of the farthest bookcase, and she quickly falls stomach first onto the ground a few feet away from the shelves.

With a great feeling of weakness growing across her body as she slowly lifts her battered self up with her elbows, Patchouli recognizes a dry sensation in her esophagus and lets out a pained cough, realizing then and there that the medicine had worn off and her strength had diminished back to its normal levels. "No…This is too soon…I should have been at full power for a much longer period of time…"

The librarian then widens her eyes as she thinks about the events that just occurred. Fighting off the forced emotional change probably pushed the effects of the medicine to their limits, and though Patchouli escaped the change she burned out every last bit of medicine that still flowed through her body in the process. This wasn't a comforting thought for the librarian, especially since only a couple moments later a shadow is cast over her fallen body, and a peek of her head upwards reveals the Celestial standing in front of her with a victorious smirk and an arrogant glare on her face as she flips the Philosopher's Stone in her hand simply to taunt Patchouli.

Though it was easy to keep this expression up now, it was incredibly difficult for Tenshi to stand in place or walk after being pounded with so much gravity. But the opportunity to taunt Patchouli after all that had happened was just too good to pass up, so the Celestial inevitably forgoes thinking about the pain. Patchouli, with an angered glare and her teeth grit over the fact that she didn't realize the truth about Kokoro and Tenshi sooner, figures that there is only one thing that she could possibly do to stop the Celestial from getting her way.

Looking past the side of Tenshi's body as Kokoro lands on the ground behind the pentagram, Patchouli declares in honest desperation "Listen to me Youkai! Whatever this Celestial has been saying is all a lie! She's a dangerous individual who only cares about herself and wishes only to threaten the sanctity of Gensokyo! She once tried to destroy everyone with an Earthquake and cared nothing about the consequences. If you don't stop listening to her she will use your powers to take control of all of Gensokyo, and she'll toss you away afterwards!"

Kokoro raises an eyebrow out of suspicion towards Patchouli's words, but swiftly turns a blind eye away from the librarian without believing anything she has to say. Tenshi, who was observing the Youkai's action as Patchouli spoke, tilts her head towards the librarian and gives her a menacing grin, saying as her eyes look glazed with ecstasy "Too bad, but she isn't going to listen to scum like you. Oh, and before I depart…Allow me to give you a parting gift."

Clenching the Philosopher's Stone in her right hand while lifting the left up slowly, Tenshi takes advantage of the fact that Patchouli's spell have all been broken and summons forth a mighty earthquake in the general vicinity of this room. As everything begins to tremble and the bookshelves rock back and forth, the Celestial puts on an act of innocent and exclaims desperately towards Kokoro "She's trying to bury us in an avalanche of books in a last ditch effort to stop us! We need to get out of here now Kokoro!"

The menreiki turns towards Tenshi and nods, preparing to head off only for her mask to fade away as she begins to lightly fall forward towards the floor. The Celestial is quick to run forward and grab underneath her right arm, even though it pains her body to do so. As books begin to fall from the shelves one at a time, Tenshi takes a glance at the side of Kokoro's face and notices that she has merely fallen asleep from exhaustion brought on by her struggle to change Patchouli's emotions. Thankful that she wasn't broken like the time she tried to Koishi's emotions, the Celestial gently tosses Kokoro over her right shoulder and uses her restored powers to summon forth a keystone through the roof of the mansion, and hop on it for an easy escape.

Patchouli is left lying on the ground, completely defeated in a manner that truly should not have happened, the agony of her failure causing her to pound the ground to the right of where she lies with a tightly clenched fist while letting out a painful sounding cough. But then the librarian begins to sink into a state of melancholy and looks ready to cry as the earthquake continues to bring the books down around her body. With a whimper preceding a tearful remark, Patchouli says only to herself "I'm sorry…Meiling…I'm sorry…Sakuya…I'm sorry…Remilia…I failed all of you…" The librarian is consumed by an avalanche of her own books not long afterwards…

Outside the Scarlet Devil Mansion, a lone being stands atop one of the trees with arms folded, feeling the tremors coming from within the building as she notices Tenshi and Kokoro fleeing the scene on the keystone. With a disgruntled glare as the being releases a puff of smoke from a long, thin pipe, the being thinks to herself _"So now the Scarlet Devil Mansion's inhabitants have fallen…Perhaps I have let this matter go on for far too long now. Though the final day is about to arrive, now is the time for me to play my hand and confront the rogue Tenshi Hinanawi…" _Pulling the pipe from her mouth, this mysterious figure vanishes in a puff of smoke…

_Next Time: Who is Tenshi Hinanawi Now?_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Wisdom of the One from Sado**

Tenshi, having escaped from the Scarlet Devil Mansion a good while ago with an unconscious Kokoro flung over her right shoulder, notices that night time has begun to fall upon Gensokyo. She was actually surprised but how quickly time has passed today, especially since the two of them started out rather early in the morning. The sun was just a couple minutes away from falling behind the mountain range, and for the first time the Celestial noticed the moon rising off to the side in the distance.

After looking at the glow of the moon, Tenshi spreads her right hand out and looks at the Philosopher Stone that was laid against her palm. She smiled as she saw a bit of her reflection within, and said in a quiet tone of voice "Hehehe…All has gone according to plan. I have the Philosopher's Stone, Kokoro is under my control, and…And…"

Tenshi blinks twice, and her haughty grin slowly fades away as she starts to look forward with regret and says "W-What am I saying? Why am I calling Kokoro a tool again? …Don't I care about her now?"

Tenshi shakes her head and tries to make an arrogant smirk once more, but her body struggles to keep it together as she says in a stutter "I-I need to focus on my plans…I need to ruin Gensokyo's emotions…I need…"

The Celestial's expression breaks as she says to herself in a dissuasive tone "No, Kokoro is a nice person, she doesn't deserve to be treated like dirt. She…She is innocent and…and…"

Tenshi snaps again and slams her left hand against her forehead without pushing Kokoro off of her shoulders with this sudden movement, saying in a frustrated voice as she looks ready to cry "W-What is wrong with me?! What am I even doing down in Gensokyo anymore? What is my purpose, what is my life meant to be, what am I existing for?!"

Tenshi appeared to be losing control of who she really was, her identity indiscernible in this puzzling conundrum of emotions. As she tries to regain control of herself, the Celestial leans her head forward and tries to take a few gentle breathes while lowering her arm, but as she does so she sees a little white light flying in front of her body. This little speck flaps its wings behind the glow of light and breaks it apart to reveal a miniature version of Tenshi with a pure white outfit, silver hair, and fairy-like wings of gilded gold. Speaking in an innocent squeak of a voice as the real Tenshi looks down in confusion, this angelic copy says to her "You exist to take care of Kokoro. After all, deep down you truly are a nice person, right?"

"I-I guess I-" Tenshi's pupils fade away into a hazy white as she looks and listens to the angelic copy speak with a ever-loving smile on her face, but as Tenshi herself tries to give an answer the booming roar of thunder shakes the very air and nearly topples the Celestial off of her keystone as though the sky itself was inflicted by the force of a powerful earthquake. The angelic copy of Tenshi quickly flies behind the real deal in fear as her eyes return to normal, and Tenshi looks up and swiftly breaks into a warm sweat upon seeing the source of thunder in the air.

There was a large gathering of storm clouds in the sky that took on a dark black color whenever lightning didn't set them aglow, and combined the clouds formed the shape of a giant demonic version of Tenshi with eyes of piercing dark shaded crimson. This Tenshi folded its arms in front of its chest and glared down at the speck that it was its original self, whose eyes lost their pupils once more as the body trembled and the eyes became a light hazy shade of red. With a voice that shakes the very heavens above Gensokyo, the demonic Tenshi says to the original "You relish in destruction, you are meant to bring about the end of Gensokyo as it is now, and you'll enjoy every damn second of it like the inhuman monster you are! There is not a single ounce of purity in your body, so discard what little doubts you have a relish in the ecstasy of chaos that you wish to bring to this boring land!"

The original Tenshi begins to grin after a bit of a stutter in her laugh, and after swinging her arms out wide ready to embrace the embodiment of her darkest desires she widens her mouth with bloody saliva dripping from her newly grown fangs as she yells out to the high heavens "YES! TAKE ME UPON YOUR MIGHTY HAND AND DELIVER ME FROM PURITY. RETURN ME TO MY MISCHIEVIOUS WAYS AND-And…"

The Celestial boisterous exclamations quickly quiet down as she glances off to the right side of her body and starts to see Kokoro slipping from her shoulder. Upon fearing for her safety, Tenshi's eyes return to normal and she quickly uses her left hand to help position the Youkai back in place, but upon blinking once after doing this she notices that both the angelic and demonic versions of herself were gone. In the end, they were both hallucinations, and despite how real they felt to her they didn't truly exist.

The Celestial frowns and looks forward, and with a bit of throbbing pain ricocheting through her skulls Tenshi clenches her eyelids shut and says to herself in a disgruntled voice "What the hell is going on with me? Did that damn magician actually manage to pull off one more spell before I left? …No, that's impossible, her spell book was nowhere in sight for her to be able to do anything, and I would have felt something if she did anything anyways."

Letting out an angered scoff, Tenshi looked down and saw the Human Village approaching from below, and thought to herself _"Ugh, its probably the safest spot for me to drop in and gather my thoughts…Unless of course that bitch Yukari is lying in wait to lynch me and Kokoro. Whatever, better that then going to the Bamboo Forest again." _

Tenshi descends from the sky on her keystone after rolling her eyes once, and makes her way for the southern entrance of the Human Village. After leaping off of her keystone and clenching the Philosopher's Stone, which somehow didn't fall out of her palm after all that happened, the Celestial begins to move towards the village itself and notices that something is rather off about the place. All the humans that had been fighting in the morning had fallen unconscious, their bodies lying scattered along the ground with bruises and scratches adorned on whatever skin is visible. The children weren't as damaged as the adults though, and it seems that they had fallen asleep on their own free will despite the fact that a couple troublesome kids tried to swat at the faces of their neighbors while they slept.

"Geez…The humans really went at each other. I'm surprised that nobody is dead. Whatever, their petty squabbles are none of my concern at the moment…" Tenshi turns a blind eye away from the fallen humans and begins to make her way towards the center of the village.

Still lying in place was the stage that Kokoro performed her Noh plays on, which was surprisingly intact despite the violence of the humans that swept the village. Walking towards the stage until she was on the last step, Tenshi turned around and sat herself down on the very edge of the stage facing the southern end of the village. She then took Kokoro off of her shoulders and laid her down on her lap, giving her a somewhat nicer spot to sleep on then the boney width of her shoulder, even though her legs would have to hang off the right side of her skirt because her own legs couldn't spread wide enough to support the Youkai's entire body.

Kokoro was smiling as she slept, which made Tenshi wonder just what type of dreams or pleasant thoughts the Youkai has having at the moment. "Hmm…Do Youkai actually dream at all when they sleep? …Come to think about it, aren't Youkai nocturnal? So why would someone like Kokoro ever sleep at night?" The Celestial lists off a bunch of her own thoughts quietly, these meager matters being used as a method to divert her focus away from her earlier issues.

However, as well-thought out as such a plan was, Tenshi was slowly being dragged back into that sense of emotional conflict that caused her to hallucinate once already. "Damn it, not again." Tenshi says as she grits her teeth out of irritation. Looking down upon Kokoro's smiling face eases the pain for just a bit, but brings the Celestial to mumble to herself "…Who am I even supposed to be anymore?"

Tenshi closes her eyelids and hangs her head for a few seconds to put herself deep in thought as a melancholy atmosphere begins to set over her body. This melancholy would be broken by the skip of her beating heart as the Celestial hears the rustling of bushes in the distance and immediately snaps back to life. Holding her right arm underneath Kokoro's body while keeping the Philosopher's Stone clenched, Tenshi stands up and draws her Hisou no Tsurugi with what little strength she has regained and glares on ahead through the dark of night. Fog begins to set along the ground of the Human Village, but this doesn't tip off the Celestial's alarms for some odd reason.

"_Darn it, that bitch Yukari has found a way to bypass my senses." _Tenshi is quick to blame the gap Youkai for this problem and begins to frantically move her head around for any signs of a slit opening up in the sky. However, there was nothing to be found no matter how hard the Celestial tried to look.

The rustling Tenshi heard earlier is slowly replaced with the sound of encroaching footsteps, and the Celestial looks down to see who was approaching her. With all that could be seen of her feet buried underneath the fog that had settled an elderly human bundled in a light brown coat began to approach the stage with a cattish smile on her face. The lady had a checkered black and white scarf wrapped around her neck that draped down beside her waist as she walked, and she wore a red-grey shirt with some autumn-like patterns adorned on it. Though the lady had folded her arms closely into her wide sleeves, one could take a peek between the center of them and see a small bottle of sake and a booklet of promissory notes attached to the rope-like belt of her skirt. The lady looked on ahead gently at Tenshi with her brown eyes, which hid behind her thin rimmed glasses. With her long, light-brown hair swaying in the nightly breeze, one could barely make out the leaf-shaped pin attached to the left side of her hair.

The lady stepped forward slowly yet mysteriously, and yet while this person certainly came off as strange for a human Tenshi didn't feel the slightest bit threatened by her presence. Even so, the Celestial hugged Kokoro close to her body and pointed the Hisou no Tsurugi at the human, saying in a inquiring tone "Who are you?"

The lady poked her head up slightly and with her expression remaining the same she tilted her head an inch to the right and said to the Celestial without acknowledging her question "Ah, so Kokoro is perfectly healthy. Good, I was concerned that she might have fallen ill again."

Tenshi immediately flinches and lowers her offensive stance a bit, surprised that this mysterious lady somehow knew about Kokoro's problems the night before and could bring it up in such a nonchalant manner. "H-How do did you know that-" The Celestial is interrupted by the gentle voice of this old-timer lady, who looked directly at her after smiling at Kokoro and said "If you would kindly place Kokoro on the stage, I'd like to have a talk with you, Tenshi Hinanawi." Her voice was a little more firm, but still carried an air of nonchalance within it.

The Celestial quickly went from seeing this old lady as an odd passerby to a legitimately concerning and yet very possibly threat once her name had been mentioned. With her eyes widening in shock and Tenshi looking down at this mysterious woman with unease on her mind, she nonetheless complied with the lady's wishes and slowly began to kneel down while keeping her head turned to face the woman. With Kokoro being laid to rest on the top of the stage, Tenshi stood upright and put the Hisou no Tsurugi away before leaping down onto the fog covered ground.

"A wise decision. Come with me, I shall guide you to a spot where we can safely sit and talk." The old lady slowly turns around and begins to walk out of the Human Village, and with a cautious glance back at the stage to check on Kokoro Tenshi proceeds to follow the lady out.

Along the way, the Celestial noticed something rather peculiar about the lady. For a human, her backside was surprisingly bushy. Tenshi could only chalk this up as the human having rather puffy clothing for the time being, and only loomed on this matter for a few seconds before the two of them arrived near the edge of the forest. At this point the old lady kneels down momentarily and draws her right hand out of the confines of her sleeve, and with the tip of her fingernails she draws a crescent line in the ground for some odd reason and proceeds to stand upright without saying a single word. Turning around to face the Celestial, the old lady gently extends her right hand with the palm perfectly visible as he points towards the ground and says "Please take a seat."

Tenshi keeps her eyes on the old lady as she slowly lowers herself towards the ground and kneels, her skirt cushioning her legs from the dirty ground as she lays her arms along the top of her legs. As she does this, the lady reaches up towards a lone tree branch and plucks from it a black teapot with a rusted exterior, with steam seeping from the spout. After exchanging the teapot over to her right hand, the lady reaches back into the tree branch and pulls out two small cups, both of which were cleaner looking than the pot itself. With everything she wanted plucked from the tree, the old lady sat down and bend her legs so the bottom of her wooden sandals would connect. She slouched forward slightly and offer one of the teacups to Tenshi, who took it after a moment of hesitation.

Once the teacup had been passed on, the old lady offered some of her hot tea, and the Celestial kept the cup held out while she poured some of the liquid in through the spout. With the steaming tea inside of Tenshi's cup the old lady proceeded to pour some of it into her own and gently set the pot down on the ground a fair distance away from her body. "Let us drink a little bit of tea before we talk, hmm?" The old lady, with such a kindly remark, proceeded to raise her teacup towards her lips and take a sip while leaning her head back, while Tenshi reluctantly did the same.

The tea was hot, but not to the point that the Celestial's innards would be burned. The tea tasted surprisingly good, though Tenshi could only judge it as a first time experience…Which is rather unfortunate, seeing as if this tea is poisoned in any way she wouldn't know how to identify it. With the first sip out of the way, the old lady looked at the Celestial and said in a kindly voice "Perhaps it was rude of me to let slip your identity earlier when I hadn't yet introduced myself. My name is Mamizou Futatsuiwa."

"…I see." Tenshi didn't know how else to respond to the identity of the lady besides via those two words. The two beings take another sip of tea, and then the Celestial proceeds to asks "Do you mind if I ask you a question real quick?"

"Go right on ahead." Mamizou says without any hesitation as she slips another bit of tea between her lips.

"Do you know Kokoro personally?" The Celestial asked, causing Mamizou to lower her teacup a bit before replying with a gentle "Yes, yes I do."

Lifting her head up to look at Tenshi with a smile, Mamizou proceeded to say to the Celestial "In a way, I guess you could call me Kokoro's caretaker. Ever since she was born into this world I've been helping her develop as a Youkai, teaching her how balance her emotions and connect well with others in this strange land of fantasy whenever the chance arises for me to do so."

Tenshi blinks twice in realization, and quickly blurts out to Mamizou "Oh, so you're the reason Kokoro knows so much about the more important residents of Gensokyo!"

Mamizou proudly nods her head and says to the Celestial "That is correct…For the most part, anyways. I haven't told her about everyone in Gensokyo yet."

"But how do you know so much about everyone? It seems rather odd that a human would know about someone as important as the Yama or the locked-up destructive vampire Flandre." Tenshi tilts her head out of puzzlement, but Mamizou merely chuckles coyly at the inquiry and says before sipping some tea "I have my methods."

After lowering the teacup, Mamizou looks at Tenshi and says to her as a continuation of her mysterious remark "Though for the most part I just asked around. The shrine maiden, despite her annoyance towards me, was helpful in telling me about some of the more important folks that Byakuren and Nue knew nothing about, but I still had to go through quite a bit of trouble to find out about some of the more enigmatic figures such as the Underground denizens and the Lunarians…"

Laying the teacup down onto her skirt, Mamizou smiled and said to the Celestial "But it was all worth it to help Kokoro understand how Gensokyo works and make sure that she doesn't run into the wrong type of people. Though admittedly, it seems I failed in that regard…" Glaring at Tenshi slyly for just a moment causes the Celestial to swallow a large chunk of saliva nervously.

Grinning, Mamizou says to Tenshi "I don't hold any animosity towards you, Tenshi Hinanawi, so you have no reason to fear my words. I am just merely pointing out that I should have told Kokoro about your existence sooner to avoid the complications that arose because I didn't."

As Mamizou speaks, Tenshi thinks back to her first encounter with Kokoro. Thinking about to it now, it was rather odd that the Youkai didn't know about her yet knew about so many other important figures in Gensokyo. With an explanation for this now given to her, the Celestial proceeded to ask Mamizou "What do you mean exactly by 'complications'?"

"…" Mamizou lays her teacup off to the side of her body and reaches into the confines of her right sleeve, pulling out a long, thin-stemmed Japanese pipe called a kiseru and putting it into her mouth to let out a light puff of smoke before saying to Tenshi "Let me lay a few details down upon you."

Slouching forward slightly, Mamizou says to the intrigued Celestial "You know all too well how Kokoro is an emotion controlling Youkai, correct? Well think about her existence this way. She's immature in age, and has only recently learned that she is capable of showing emotions on her own. Because of her youthful nature, she has barely any mastery over the way she controls her powers. Thus, without even realizing it, the overuse of her powers over the last few days have caused an excess of emotional energy from her masks to leak out and spread across Gensokyo, infecting people's minds like only a disease born of such methods could do. Those who have been infected have their emotions swiftly changed as though Kokoro touched them, even if she was nowhere within range. I'm sure you witnessed the humans fighting pettily this morning, yes?"

"Wait, so that was Kokoro's doing?" Tenshi said in a voice of utter shock. "Not intentionally, but yes…That is the truth of the matter." Is what Mamizou quietly says in response.

"I-I had no idea that such a thing would happen." The Celestial then said with a bit of guilt in her voice.

Mamizou takes another smoke and as a ringed puff rises into the air she glances over at Tenshi coyly and says to her "You had no way of knowing, and that's quite alright. Though admittedly, this disease has infected both Youkai and humans alike, which has caused more then enough complications on my end over the past few days."

"What do you mean by that?" Tenshi asks with her head perking up out of curiosity.

"Well, you saw how aggressive the humans became, right? Aggression is just one of many emotions that the people of Gensokyo have been infected with, but it is by far the most dangerous. Some particularly dangerous Youkai have been riled up with bloodlust, and during the night when I've stopped observing you both I've had to go out and incapacitate them in order to prevent any trouble. Thankfully it seems I was not alone in my efforts, as the one-armed 'hermit' helped deal with the Kappa, Tengu and goddesses up on Youkai Mountain. Still, you've run me rather ragged the last few days Tenshi Hinanawi, though once again I express that I don't hold any animosity towards you." Mamizou closes her eyelids and takes another puff of smoke after explaining herself to the Celestial.

"Ummm…Thank you?" Tenshi could only say that blankly in response to everything Mamizou said, especially since all things considered, the human should hate her. However, there was something that Tenshi found rather suspicious about everything Mamizou had said.

Slanting her eyebrows as she glared at Mamizou, the Celestial asked bluntly "Hey wait a second, if this disease can affect both Youkais and humans, then how come neither you nor I have been touched?"

"Its because I was very close to Kokoro as she began to grow into a Youkai. Byakuren, the Crown Prince, and the shrine maiden are all also immune to Kokoro's disease because of similar matters. As far as you go though…" Mamizou slants her head slightly so her eyes are hidden by the glow of the moon reflecting off of her glasses, giving her a foreboding air as she grins and says to the Celestial "Who ever said you weren't touched by the emotional disease?"

This remark from the human makes Tenshi's hands clench up against her skirt as she becomes a little uneasy. Mamizou spins her pipe around with a graceful twirl of the fingers and stamps it with the mouthpiece pointed towards the ground as she says to the Celestial "You think I haven't noticed your distress? How your emotional state has become a complete and utter train wreck compared to what you were before?"

"B-But that can't be true!" Tenshi blurts out in disbelief as she swings her right arm off to the side and frantically says "If being close to Kokoro is the prerequisite for not being infected, then there's no way that her emotional disease could have touched me!"

Mamizou lifts her body up and smiles, twirling the pipe and place it back in her mouth for a quick smoke before she slants forward and says to Tenshi calmly "My words are but a theory, Tenshi Hinanawi. You could be infected, you might not be infected…But what I do know for certain is that you didn't start showing changes until you met Kokoro. Though admittedly, I have a second theory that might offer an alternate explanation as to why you've become so emotionally distressed."

The Celestial looked up at Mamizou, who awaited a response with an almost Cheshire-like grin on her face, and immediately thought about how ridiculous it was that she was even about to let someone else analysis her character. But the very thought that her feelings towards Kokoro might be artificially created by a disease was too much for Tenshi to bear, and thus with eyelids shut tightly as she clenched her right fist angrily in reluctance the Celestial said to the human "Alright…I'm listening…"

"Excellent." Mamizou says with quiet enthusiasm as she puts her pipe away for the moment and stamps her hand against her kneecaps, saying to the Celestial soon afterwards with her eyes firm glaring her way "I've done my fair share of research on Celestials even before I came to Gensokyo. I wouldn't call myself an expert on the subject by any means, but I know quite enough about them to ensure you that I am not making baseless assumptions on what I'm going to say."

Raising one pointer finger towards Tenshi, Mamizou proceeds to say "One of the keys to becoming a Celestial is to achieve enlightenment, which means purity of the mind. If my facts are straight, you didn't achieve enlightenment yet became a Celestial because of your parents, yes?"

Tenshi nods her head, and Mamizou smiles and says "In my honest opinion, you got off lucky, Tenshi." Which is a remark that brings nothing but confusion to the Celestial's face.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Tenshi asks.

Mamizou lowers her hand and says with her eyelids shut "Now, I can't say I very readily approve of people getting into places when they haven't earned the right on their own and simply backpedal on the achievements of others, but all things considered I wouldn't have wished the true way of becoming a Celestial upon anyone. To become a Celestial means achieving enlightenment along with immortality and vast knowledge as you ascend into paradise…But what is cost of such things, you may ask? Nothing in life comes without a cost, after all."

"The answer to that is quite simple. When a Celestial rightfully ascends, they lose all emotions save for their sense of tranquility. They become puppets dedicated only to enjoying paradise and the knowledge they have obtained without realizing that they have lost their very identities in the process. But you are different from all other Celestials, a single blue petal in a field of white roses, if I have to make a comparison. You can feel other emotions besides tranquility, and you recognize how boring 'paradise' truly is…But I believe it goes deeper then that, and allow me to clarify why I believe that is."

"If you ascended to paradise because of your parents, that means you achieved the knowledge and immortality of a Celestial but not the enlightenment that purified your mind. So you ascended to Bhava-agra as a child but with knowledge that someone your age should not have been allowed to have. But even so, you were still a child, and thus still required the care and attention of your parents. However, they were so entranced by their enlightened state of mind that they felt that you didn't need them anymore and became focused only on enjoying paradise to the fullest extent. You became distraught by this, and tried to grab their attention to various degrees only to fail. Because you were so young, this distraught eventually turned into childish anger, and you used more desperate means to grab their attention."

"You were likely reprimanded for your actions at first, the calm anger the other Celestials showed giving you the attention you desired and making you want to keep up your behavior just to ensure that you would receive attention. But eventually the Celestials brushed you off as merely a nuisance and stopped giving you attention, refusing to let your inane actions deny them the joy of paradise and simply leaving you to make a fool of yourself. From this spawned your bratty nature, which left you feeling entitled to attention despite nobody caring at all to satisfy your desires. It eventually got to the point that you simply resigned yourself to being trapped up in Bhava-agra without any 'parents' or 'friends' to care about you."

"But because of all that had happened, you couldn't bring yourself to enjoy 'paradise'. It was an empty place, and the immense boredom created a more mischievous child that desired attention on a much grander scale then ever before. Thus you targeted Gensokyo with an earthquake, caring little about the consequences so long as someone noticed and gave you attention. In summary, your self-entitled attitude was born from a combination of a premature ascension to Bhava-agra along with a rejection of attention from the other Celestials, and your massive desire for attention was born from your parents failing to care at all about you after they became entranced by their own enlightenment."

With that long-winded analysis of Tenshi's character out of way, Mamizou took in a deep breath and let it out, staring up at the completely befuddled Celestial as she stares blankly at her and asks in a disbelieving stutter "H-How were you able to figure all that out?"

Mamizou slightly grins and says "Like I said before, I have my methods. It is a matter of combining research with an examination of one's actions, and I just so happened to have enough of both to be able to determine all that about you."

Tenshi slants her eyebrows out of melancholy and says to Mamizou quietly "But wait…What does all of that have to do with why I started becoming emotionally distressed after meeting Kokoro?"

"That was next on my plate, I just wanted to give you a moment to take all of that in so you wouldn't become overwhelmed." Mamizou smiles and slouches forward after letting the Celestial take a moment's breath, and goes on to say "You see, the solution is rather simple despite all that I just said…"

"In a way, you see a lot of yourself in Kokoro…Or rather, you see what you were once before, a child that required attention yet was denied it by something that could not be helped, and that subconsciously attracted you to her. But while a part of you desires to make sure that Kokoro never suffers the fate of being lonely and bored like you became, the self-entitled, destructive personality that you had been locked into after many years of stagnation is fighting against the re-emergence of your more innocent side, thus creating emotional distress within your mind."

"So its not a matter of love?" Tenshi asks Mamizou after the latter had finally finished speaking about the connection between the Celestial and the menreiki.

Mamizou shakes her head and says to the Celestial "Not at all. If anything, I'd say that you see Kokoro as more of a younger sister than anything else."

Tenshi, after being told that by the human, hangs her head a bit and clenches the top of her skirt tightly, saying in a distraught tone of voice "Mamizou…What am I supposed to do about all of this? How can I stop all of this emotional distress?"

Mamizou points at the Celestial's right hand in such a way that it grabs her attention and has her lift her head up as the human explains to her "You have the solution to everything right in the palm of your hand."

Tenshi opens her fingers wide and sees the Philosopher's Stone resting in her palm, but out of confusion towards Mamizou's intentions she asks "But how will this help me out?"

Mamizou slants to the side and stares at Tenshi, saying to her with a smile on her face "In your hand you hold an object of great might, one that will allow you to amplify Kokoro's powers to the point that she can change the emotions of everyone in Gensokyo with a great deal of control. But Kokoro can't be the one to use the stone. You have to use it on her and use her powers yourself."

"I-I can do that?" Tenshi says with a finger pointed towards herself in bewilderment and a blank expression on her face.

Mamizou nods and smiles, saying to the Celestial "Of course. Just tap Kokoro on the head with the Philosopher's Stone and a bit of her excess emotional energy will go into it, allowing you to control her powers yourself."

"And how will this solve my problems exactly?" Tenshi asks.

Mamizou, slouching forward once more, explains to the Celestial "Right now your two emotional states are fighting for control over your mind. If you truly want to keep Kokoro as your friend, you will dig yourself out of this pile of lies you have created and use the Philosopher's Stone to return everyone's emotions back to normal. But if you are perfectly fine with being what you were before meeting Kokoro just to get a few kicks that will likely fade from your memories and be replaced with boredom in due time, then you can use Kokoro to mess with everyone's emotions in whatever way you like. You could even mess with the shrine maiden once more if you so desired. But I must warn you, you have until tomorrow to decide on what to do."

Mamizou begins to stand upright, and as Tenshi clenches the Philosopher's Stone and looks up at the human with a look of utter confusion before declaring "Huh?! Why do I only have until tomorrow to decide?!"

"Because when tomorrow comes, this incident will come to an end. All the pieces have lined up into place, and when they make their move the king will topple." Mamizou speaks cryptically, but not well enough seeing as Tenshi is able to interpret the meaning behind her words.

Clenching her fists in anger as she begins to push herself onto her feet, Tenshi boldly proclaims "What, do you intend to stop me yourself if I don't make a decision?!"

Mamizou faces the Celestial and smiles, saying in an honest tone of voice "Not at all. I cannot ever hope to defeat someone as powerful as you. Nor have I done anything to move the pieces into place. It is just the very nature of this incident that moved the pieces to their proper spots so the King could fall. Though I have to wonder…Are the pieces that are set up against you going to be the one to bring about your fall, or is there one piece that one could not expect to ever succeed that will end this incident? I hope you make the right decision Tenshi, Kokoro could really benefit from having someone other than me as a friend."

Mamizou turns around and begins to head off, but Tenshi swings her right arm out and exclaims "Hold on a moment there Mamizou, there is something that has been bugging me all this time…What is Kokoro to you? Why do you, a human, care so much about a Youkai?"

Mamizou turns to face Tenshi and smiles, saying honestly to her "To me, Kokoro represents quite a lot. Bhava-agra is not the only land guilty of stagnation. For hundreds of years, Gensokyo has remained the same. The people who live here may change, but the order of the world has not. Kokoro is one who greatly defies the stagnation in Gensokyo. She is a Youkai, but not one that is dependant on the consumption of humans in order to survive. She also is not feared by the humans, and is accepted as though she was one of their own. I believe that Kokoro is the start of change in Gensokyo, and that through helping her I can possibly help other Youkai. Stagnation in the world is a terrible thing, and if anything can be done to change the world in a beneficial way then I will be more than happy to do whatever I can."

Mamizou then lifts a finger up in front of her lips and coyly smiles, saying to the Celestial "Also, I don't ever recall identifying myself as a human."

Reaching into the backside of her skirt with her right hand, Mamizou is quick to pull out a giant, fluffy, striped tail with an autumn coloring to it. Tenshi is taken completely aback by this revelation, and with her left hand pointed at Mamizou she blurts out "It all makes sense now! You're a tanuki!"

Mamizou smiles and says to the Celestial proudly "Tanuki, Bane-danuki, you are welcome to call me either. Anyways, I know it seems like I'm rushing off so quickly after revealing this bit of news to you, but I feel as though I have overstayed my welcome and must get going to deal with any other Youkai that have gone rogue thanks to the emotional disease before morning comes. I'm glad we had this talk Tenshi, and I hope that you make the right decision…I'd hate to make an enemy out of you."

Waving goodbye in an oddly frantic manner, Mamizou disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving Tenshi standing in place befuddled as to why the tanuki departed so quickly from the scene. A chilling breeze creeps up the Celestial's spine, and she quickly turns around and briefly sees a small slit in the sky that closes up before Tenshi can react much to it. Blinking twice, the Celestial thinks to herself in a tone of curiosity _"Was Yukari watching us? Crap…I hope that she wasn't the one Mamizou was talking about." _

Clenching the Philosopher's Stone in her hand and trying her hardest to avoid thinking about Yukari, Tenshi walks back through the Human Village until she arrives in front of the stage where Kokoro rests. Getting back up on the stage, the Celestial sits down beside the Youkai and looks up towards the stars in the sky, saying to herself quietly "…What will my decision be? Geez, why do I have to have such a tight time limit to think about this?" Letting out a tired sigh, Tenshi looks over at Kokoro and thinks to herself as she looks at her smiling face _"…I have to wait for Kokoro to awaken in order to go through with either decision, so there's that, at the very least…" _

Tomorrow would be the final day of the incident, according to the cryptic words of the tanuki Mamizou, and Tenshi didn't know whether she should be happy or worried…

_Next Time: Everything Crumbles_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: End of the Lie**

In due time the morning arises upon Gensokyo, the crack of the sun above the mountains bringing with it a rather unnatural quiet across the land. The Human Village appeared to be the only part of Gensokyo with any activity around it, and as the lone Celestial sits on the stage with Kokoro resting on her lap she knows all too well the reason why everything is quiet.

Between the unconscious humans, the infiltration of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the attack on Myouren Temple, the engagements with Yukari and Mokou and the berserk Youkai created by the overuse of Kokoro's powers, there was no reason for there to be a single bit of activity amongst the usually cheerful denizens of Gensokyo. Tenshi knew all too well that she was to blame for causing all of this trouble, but for once in her life she couldn't bring herself to enjoy the mayhem. She looked down at Kokoro's face and frowned, a melancholy air dispersing around her body as she whispers "Come on Kokoro, wake up already…"

There was urgency in her words caused directly by the emotional distress in the Celestial's mind, and because of this Tenshi wanted the Youkai to awaken so she could finally decide how to end this incident. Opening her right hand to look at the Philosopher's Stone, Tenshi thinks back to the words the tanuki Mamizou gave to her before she hastily departed. With the stone, the Celestial could either control Gensokyo's emotions or return everyone back to normal. This was the only way that Tenshi would find condolence during this crisis of hers. But the one thing that was truly weighing on her mind was how this decision would affect Kokoro.

If Tenshi controlled all of Gensokyo's emotions, then Kokoro would probably not bat an eye at the matter seeing as she would still believe that the Celestial was helping everyone. But if Tenshi returned everyone back to normal, not only would the Celestial feel a great weight being carried off of her shoulders, but it wouldn't be too hard to explain just why she did it…Or maybe it would, seeing as Kokoro knew nothing about the negative side effects of using her powers so often. Tightened her eyelids and pounding her right fist against her forehead, Tenshi expressed frustration at everything that was happening and said to her herself in distress "Damn it damn it damn it! Why can't this be easier to figure out?!"

As Tenshi lowered her fist away from her partially bruised forehead, the Celestial took a quick glance around her body and thought to herself _"Ugh, and if that tanuki is telling the truth and not bluffing then someone is going to come in to try and stop me…But who is going to come after me?"_

Tenshi tries to filter through all of her options to figure out who might be coming. She immediately takes off Suika and Yukari simply because they've made their motives known. The shrine maiden falls off not long afterwards seeing as the Celestial figured that the two of them would have met again by now if she really had any investment into this incident. But before Tenshi could go further into the list of possible suspects she hears a light murmur coming from Kokoro and pokes her head down to watch as Kokoro opens her eyelids and lets out a squeaky yawn.

The yawn was rather cute coming from the Youkai, and that was enough to make Tenshi crack a smile as Kokoro looks up with a puzzled tilt of her head and says with cheerful stoicism "Good morning Tenshi…"

The Celestial responds kindly with "Hey Kokoro, how did you sleep?"

Kokoro takes a moment to examine the environment, and after recognizing her stage and Tenshi's lap the Youkai's cheeks become a light shade of red as she pushes herself off with her head and quickly positions herself in front of the Celestial with a bit of levitation. With a stutter, the Youkai responds to Tenshi with "I-I slept just fine. I think I overexerted myself yesterday, but otherwise…"

Blinking twice at the Celestial as she tilts her head, Kokoro quickly changes the subject by saying "Say, what happened in the Library, Tenshi?"

The Celestial, with her hands resting beside her body, flinches and says to Kokoro "H-Huh? Why are you asking?"

The Youkai straightens her head and says with a worried expression on her face "Well…You were fighting the librarian, and you looked like you were about to be killed…And Patchouli spoke as if she knew who you were. Did something happen between the two of you in the past?"

Tenshi flinches again, this time lightly gritting her teeth much to Kokoro's confusion as the Celestial thinks to herself _"Crap! I didn't think Kokoro would have picked up on that…But thankfully, she didn't seem to notice anything else. Alright then, I can work with this."_

The Celestial lifts her head up and puts on a pitiful frown, saying in an over-the-top tone of sadness "That librarian is a cruel mistress, Kokoro…She is so buried in ecstasy towards her books that if she catches even one other person touching her books she does everything in her power to try and end their life. She's also a silver-tongue heathen who lies in an attempt to lure others into a false sense of security before ending their lives on the spot, which is why she tried to turn you against me…It was an attempt to distract you while she prepared an Earthquake spell to bury us under her books."

Tenshi smiles behind her pitiful frown, but feels guilty welling up inside of her heart as she says all of these lies to Kokoro. The Youkai tilts her head, seemingly ready to accept what was said as fact until she opens her mouth and mentions to the Celestial "But if she cares so much about her books, why would she want to desecrate them just to kill us?"

Tenshi recognizes the flaw in her explanation far-too late, but since Kokoro pointed it out and the lie began to unravel the Celestial had to work up a response quickly and after letting out a light cough as she rose to her feet Tenshi said to the Youkai "I told you already, the librarian is a desperate witch who would be perfectly willing to use any means to kill those who touch her books."

Tenshi begins to take a couple steps off of the stage, but is stopped momentarily by Kokoro laying a hand on her left shoulder and asking her "But Tenshi, from what I've heard the human magician Marisa is constantly taking books from Patchouli's library, so why hasn't she been ki-"

The Celestial quickly brushes Kokoro's hand off and turns around, giving her a rather angered scowl and glare while exclaiming to her "For the love of god, why the hell are you bombarding me with so many questions all of a sudden Kokoro?!"

This outburst of Tenshi's causes Kokoro to flinch in shock, and the meek Youkai retracts a couple inches away from the Celestial while quietly saying in an unnerved yet sad tone of voice "I-I'm sorry Tenshi…I-I just thought that something didn't feel right about yesterday…"

Seeing Kokoro with such an innocent, melancholy air around her body made the Celestial ease up on her anger almost instantly and with a nervous blush in her cheeks Tenshi rubs the back of her head and hastily says in an apologetic tone of voice "No, I'm the one who needs to apologize Kokoro. I almost died yesterday, so you have to understand that I'm not in the best of moods because of that. But I shouldn't have taken my distress out on you, and I'm sorry once again for that."

Kokoro quickly smiles at Tenshi and says in an empathetic tone of stoicism "I understand your concerns Tenshi. Just forget about what that monstrous librarian did to you."

Giving a thumbs up towards the Youkai with her left hand, the Celestial says to Kokoro "Yeah, lets get back to focusing on our goals. Speaking of that…" Extending her right hand and opening it up, Tenshi reveals the glowing Philosopher's Stone to the Youkai, who is then captured by the awe of the light radiating around it and trots a couple feet forward in the air to get a closer look at it.

"Hehe…I managed to nab a Philosopher's Stone during all of that chaos, so now we'll be able to make Gensokyo an emotionally correct paradise!" Tenshi smiles with her eyelids closed at Kokoro, who looks down at the Philosopher's Stone and starts moving her right hand towards it as though she was a fish attracted to a lure, only for the Celestial to glimpse at this and quickly clamp her fingers shut to prevent the Youkai from taking it.

This puzzles Kokoro, who looks up at the Celestial and says to her "Tenshi, what are you doing? I need the Philosopher's Stone in order to do this."

The Celestial quickly wiggles her left finger at Kokoro, saying to her "We are going to do this Kokoro, but you can't hold onto the stone. It is a very powerful stone, and it needs someone equally strong to focus its power in order to maintain the amplifying effects. I don't think your young body can handle the power of the Philosopher's Stone, so I'm going to take a fall for you and use the stone on you while you fix up Gensokyo's emotions, even though it will drain a lot of my strength."

Kokoro tilts her head, finding it a little difficult to believe what Tenshi was saying as she says in a questioning tone "Are you sure you need to go that far?"

"Of course. I told you many times before, I'm your guardian angel, and I'm going to see this through to the very end. But I can only be the focus point for the Philosopher's Stone power if there is a link established between the two of us. Luckily, the stone can establish such a connection. All I have to do is tap you with the stone and draw out a tiny bit of your energy. Is that ok with you, Kokoro?" Tenshi explains her plan and gives the Youkai a fair chance to accept it.

Kokoro thinks things over for a few brief moments, but the innocent mind doesn't take long to accept the ideas of the snake before her and she nods her head and says blissfully "Ok Tenshi, go right ahead and do it then. Its time we saved Gensokyo from its own emotional turmoil."

The Celestial nods her head and then raises her right hand up, placing the tip of the Philosopher's Stone against Kokoro's forehead as the Youkai pokes her eyes up innocently and watches as a bit of her own energy is pulled into the stone in the form of a light-blue wisp of air, which compresses into the shape of a happy mask in the center of the stone as Tenshi pulls it back and clasps it in her hand. With a step of her foot against the ground the Celestial summons forth a keystone underneath her body and rises up into the air slowly, looking down upon Kokoro, Tenshi says to her "Alright, I'll monitor things from above. You get up on stage and prepare to focus your powers on all of Gensokyo, and together we'll make everything right in the world."

The Youkai's nodding head tells the Celestial all she needed to know, and she quickly rises up into the sky above the Human Village as Kokoro turns around and floats back onto the center of the stage. Kokoro then faces where she was looking at before and closes her eyelids, concentrating on what she imagines to be the whole of Gensokyo as Tenshi flips herself around on the keystone and undoes her grasp on the Philosopher's Stone, letting the mighty object filled with Kokoro's essence hover above her palm with its pale glow as she glares down at it and sinks her eyebrows out of hesitation.

"…_I-I still don't know what I want to do…Here I am, possibly seconds away from deciding Gensokyo's fate, and I can't even bring myself to pick an answer in regards what I want to do." _Tenshi, feeling the painful stress of this mighty decision, closes her right hand and presses it against her chest, her eyelids clenching shut as she appears ready to cry.

"_D-Damn it all…I just want to be done with all of this. I can't expect things to go back to the way they were before now that I've gotten to know Kokoro, but I can't just ignore my desire to keep causing mayhem…My heart is like a storm right now and I can't make it stop! Maybe…Maybe I should just get rid of this stupid tool and-" _As Tenshi distresses herself over this conflicting conundrum, she was completely unaware of what was happening in the distance.

In front of the bright glow of the rising sun a figure rocketed forward through the air at heavily increasing speeds with their right foot extended outward and their right hand pressing down on top of their skirt. A mere millisecond before the being ends up in front of Tenshi, the Celestial begins to open her eyelids, only to be met with a mountain-shattering kick to the chest, delivered by none other than the Buddhist magician herself, Byakuren Hijiri. Tenshi's head and legs are thrust inward after a shockwave of absolute pain wrenches itself through her body, and it takes only another second for the Celestial to be launched right off of her keystone and be sent flying straight towards the ground outside the Human Village like a descending asteroid.

Tenshi's impact with the ground is so thunderous in nature that Kokoro's concentration is broken and with an innocent murmur of "Huh?" she turns around and looks up to see Byakuren repositioning herself upright with smoke coming from the bottom of her right sandal. With the Youkai only able to express utter confusion at the Buddhist's appearance, she watches as Byakuren quickly sprints off across the sky towards the place where Tenshi impacted upon.

Speaking of the Celestial, the battered girl is currently at the end of a dirty, half a mile long scar in the ground created by the power of Byakuren's kick. Her hat has become lopsided and her ponytail has become undone, but for some miraculous reason the Philosopher's Stone managed to stay grasped in her right hand. With a heavy amount of dirt built up on the back of her dress and her rib bones feeling as though they were on the verge of shattering, Tenshi slowly began to pull herself from the ground, the walls of the scar she was forced into crumbling apart as the support of her arms leave them.

Tenshi rises up from the scar with a pissed off glare in her eyes as Byakuren descends from the sky and floats at the halfway point between the beginning and end of the scar, with a mischievous yet somewhat serious look in her eyes as she holds her right arm up beside her body. "You stinking Buddhist, what the hell do you think you are doing?!" The Celestial exclaims with a tone of utter fury.

However, Byakuren remains calm in the face of Tenshi's anger and says nothing, merely smiling at the Celestial's behavior as a bright crimson and yellow glow fills the air, and all things born of sky and ground save for the Buddhist and the Celestial are replaced with absolute pitch black darkness that only further illuminates the powerful glow. Floating a fair distance above Byakuren is the Taoist Miko, whose cape flutters about wildly in the face of her awe-inspiring power as she holds her shaku as high above her head as physically possible with both hands, igniting it with a multitude of spiritual flames.

When Miko's concentration has reached its threshold, the Taoist widens her eyelids in a determined fashion and declares upon the Celestial "Heed the Commands with Absolute Care!" As the winds created by her power blow her cape backwards, Miko swings her shaku forward faster than the human eye can react while maintaining a perfect stance in the air. From the tip of her shaku to the bottom of the heavens descends a carving slash of blazing light towards Tenshi, who is forced to fly away a great distance away to the right in order to avoid being hit by the attack. Byakuren is fortunately safe floating underneath the body of the Crown Prince, and as the darkness shatters from Miko's attack she watches as the light carves a scar into the land that is three times as long as the one created by Byakuren's kick yet only one and a half times as wide.

The ground along this path of this attack is absolutely massacred, with not even the rising dirt and debris managing to avoid absolute disintegration in the face of Miko's Last Word. When the attack had reached its end, Tenshi quickly pocketed the Philosopher's Stone and went out to face the two aggressors, floating back above the lengthened scar as the Crown Prince descends from skies and scoffs at the failure of her Last Word, saying to Byakuren as she stops beside her with the cape becoming stationary and her shaku being lowered back in front of her mouth "All that waiting and my attack ended up failing to do the job…"

The Buddhist is quick to point out in a nonchalant tone of voice "Perhaps if you didn't waste a few precious seconds saying the name of your Last Word we would be done with this incident already."

Miko merely shrugs at the remark of her Buddhist ally and says to her "I was simply trying to keep to Spell Card traditions. Though admittedly, it probably wasn't the best time for that to be followed. It doesn't matter though…" The Crown Prince glares over at Tenshi and proceeds to say to her "We have managed to corner the instigator of this incident, and its time for her to pay the price for her mischief."

The Celestial, scowling at the ill-timed arrival of Miko and Byakuren, thinks to herself angrily _"Son of a bitch, why did these two have to show up now?! Are they the ones Mamizou said would stop me?" _

Growling behind her scowl, Tenshi looks up at the two figures and says to them "Tell me, did that tanuki send you both after me?!"

Byakuren perks her eyebrows up upon hearing the tanuki get mentioned, but Miko is the one who responds vocally to the remark by saying to the Celestial "No, we were not guided here by her. We acted against you after you went to the Myouren Temple and convinced Kokoro to use her powers on our allies, but our initial plan of following your retreat was foiled by the fact that you chose to change directions to another location. So instead of blindly trying to seek you out, we lied in wait outside the Human Village, since it was easy to figure out that the villain would return to the place where her crimes began eventually. After that the plan was for Byakuren to set you up so I could exterminate you with my Last Word, but I see now that we are going to have to resort to a more straight-up confrontation."

Tenshi scoffs are everything Miko says, noting in a sarcastic tone of voice "Yeah, that figures. Fine then, if you want a fight, then prepare to descend into Hell for choosing to oppose an angel!"

Miko lifts an eyebrow out of suspicion towards the Celestial's choice of words, saying in a snide voice "What are you talking about?" before learning just exactly what she meant as Kokoro descends between all three figures and extends her arms out in a defensive stance.

Byakuren is surprised by the Youkai's appearance, more-so considering that Kokoro is defending Tenshi so willingly. "K-Kokoro, what are you doing?" The Buddhist monk lets her own motherly emotions get in the way of her focus towards stopping the Celestial, and she addresses Kokoro with her right arm concernedly extended in front of her body.

Miko remains stoic for the time being as she awaits Kokoro's response with her shaku held in front of her mouth. With a somewhat confused expression, the Youkai says to Byakuren "I want to know why you are attacking Tenshi first, Miss Hijiri!"

Byakuren, being forced to answer the insisting Kokoro, can only look on with a mildly serious expression as she says to the Youkai "Kokoro, the Celestial is a dangerous individual. She's been using you to change the emotions of everyone in Gensokyo for her own pleasure, and plans to take over the land with your powers. You need to remember that we are your allies Kokoro, we would have no reason to lie to you."

"…Is that so?" Kokoro hangs her eyes in sadness, pained at the fact that she was seriously considering questioning the gentle words Byakuren said to her. With her mouth open and her eyes glancing up at the Buddhist magician, the Youkai says "Then tell me Miss Hijiri…Why did you send assassins after me and Tenshi?"

"H-Huh?" Byakuren was taken aback by Kokoro's accusation, and while Miko closed her eyelids and began to hum to herself about what was going on the Buddhist magician said in a hasty tone of voice "Kokoro that's silly. I'm a Buddhist, why would I have a legion of deadly assassins waiting to be sent out?"

Tenshi takes up the role of answerer in this instance, as with a snide tone of voice she says to Byakuren "What type of Buddhist would try and convert Youkai? What type of Buddhist would keep their youthful looks? I don't know lady, you don't seem like a typical Buddhist to me, so you having assassins isn't too far out there."

Byakuren pauses out of surprise towards Tenshi's response, the fact that the Celestial was able to use such information against her causing her to go silent for a few seconds before she tries an alternative means of convincing Kokoro by saying to her with a warm glance her way "But still Kokoro, what reason would I have to try and kill you? Remember how I helped you try and balance your emotions near the end of that last incident?"

Kokoro looks away from Byakuren and responds to her by saying "…It is easy to lie to timid folk in order to manipulate and oppress them. Miss Hijiri…You are no exception to that rule."

Tenshi cocked a vile grin once the Youkai said this, thinking to herself _"Heh, so what I said at the Moriya Shrine stuck in Kokoro's head after all." _But while a part of her enjoyed Kokoro turning against Byakuren, the Celestial felt partially guilty and quickly put aside her grin as the two figures continued to exchange words.

"…" Closing her eyelids and folding her arms in front of her chest, Byakuren pauses in place and calmly says to Kokoro "I'm sorry if you feel that I have deceived you in some way Kokoro, but it was never my intention to manipulate you when I helped you out with your emotions. I merely wanted you to find balance within yourself and find happiness in turn. There was never any ulterior motives behind my actions, and I never would try and have you killed even if I did have assassins at my disposal."

The words of the Buddhist magician got Tenshi feeling a bit worried, especially once Kokoro lowered her arms just an inch and looked a bit confused by what Byakuren just said, especially after she glances back at the Celestial with widening eyes. In order to save face, Tenshi is quick to swing her right arm out and say to Byakuren "Yeah, well what reason do we have to believe that you are telling us the truth? Though speaking of liars…"

Tenshi turns her head to face the suspicious silent Miko and says with her right hand pointed in an accusing manner at the Taoist "You sure have been silent after Kokoro showed her face. From what she told me you created a second Mask of Hope with the intention of making Kokoro's existence as a Youkai come to an end. Do you want to refute this accusation?" Acting as though she has the upper hand over Miko, Tenshi smiles slyly.

However, the Taoist merely creaks her eyelids open and lowers her shaku to reveal a laid-back smile, saying in a nonchalant tone of voice "Right now Celestial, I'm not the one who has words for you."

With Miko's strange sentence bringing a gaze of bewilderment upon the Celestial, Tenshi is almost thrown off-guard as from the sky two words are exclaimed excitedly "STARDUST REVERIE!"

Barely recognizing the name of the Spell Card, Tenshi looks up and sees a barrage of Danmaku stars with glowing white edges coming straight at her, and quickly back flips out of the way as the barrage falls into the scar Miko and Byakuren created and repeatedly explodes in a neon yet flashy manner. As the Celestial lands on the ground, she is quickly surrounded in a thick circumference by all manner of shrine maiden seals that one could think of. Forced to leap into the sky, Tenshi looks below her feet as the seals ram into each other where the Celestial once floated and create a series of sparkling explosions.

Once the attack has faded away Tenshi descends and quickly looks to the sky along with Byakuren, Miko and Kokoro. Descending from above on her broom is Marisa, who is cocking a coy smile while her mini-hakkero is grasped diagonally at the ground with a bit of smoke coming from the center. Reimu was beside the happy magician with a bitter scowl on her face as she looks down at Tenshi. Without so much as a thought put into rationality, the shrine maiden is quick to summon her Hakurei Yin-Yang orbs on both sides of her body and quickly fire a rapid barrage of red laser down upon the Celestial.

After gliding back to dodge the attack as it collides multiple times with the ground, Tenshi proceeds to watch as Reimu discards the Yin-Yang orbs for the moment and joins Marisa in landing beside Byakuren and Miko, with the Ordinary Magician getting off of her broom and grasping it in her left hand. With a smile on her face as she turns to face the Buddhist and Taoist leaders, Marisa greets the two with a surprise "Oy, didn't expect to see either of you here!"

Reimu takes a different approach though, as she notices the scar along the ground and with an arrogant grin she pumps her right fist and says "Ha! You two aren't so infallible after all. I would never cause needless destruction in order to solve an incident!"

Marisa quickly turns her head to face Reimu and says with a nervous giggle as she closes her eyelids "But Reimu, you tried to get the moon blown up in order to defeat that one Lunarian."

Reimu quickly turns her head to face Marisa and says to her in a snappy voice "Nobody asked you to respond to that Marisa!" Which causes Marisa to chuckle at a slower yet more merry pace.

Miko, despite finding a little humor in Reimu and Marisa's squabble, politely said to them "I'm surprised that you two joined us. I would have expected you both to have been on this case sooner."

Reimu breaks away from her argument with Marisa and glares like a bloodthirsty demon at Miko, taking the Taoist's words in an insulting manner as she proclaims "Well you know what you high-and-mighty little shit-"

Marisa turns to face Miko while bopping Reimu in the front of her face with the tip of her broom to stop her from making a wrong move, proceeding to say to the Taoist leader in a somewhat blunt tone "Well if we have to be honest, we got a little sidetracked. We had to deal with like five stages worth of bosses each before we knew to head over here. In order I faced that darkness Youkai in Stage 1, the lunatic rabbit for Stage 2, that drunken oni for Stage 3, that ice fairy for Stage 4, Patchouli for Stage 5, and then I came here."

"…As far things go for me, I faced that crazy judge in Stage 1, Yukari in Stage 2, that subconscious satori for Stage 3, some egotistical bitch for Stage 4, and that irritating Tanuki for Stage 5...After slapping the drunk out of me, the tanuki told me to come here…I think." As Reimu explains the path she took, Marisa can only grin.

"Reimu, you definitely did not fight such powerful foes for your first two Stages." Marisa is quick to point out, only for the shrine maiden to snap and say "Well it may as well have been fights considering how hard I struggled not to slug either one of them in the face as they lectured me!"

Reimu and Marisa are prevented from arguing any further by Miko, who directs them on the right path by closing her eyelids and saying "As the 'egotistical bitch', I would like to point out that there is something more urgent you two need to focus on besides your arguing."

The Ordinary Magician, remembering just who they were confronting, says in a snappy voice "Oh right, Tenshi." and quickly turns to face the Celestial alongside Reimu.

Reimu goes into full on serious mode here as she points at the flabbergasted Tenshi and says to her "You know, I don't why you came back here, but your reign of emotional manipulation is at an end…Even though I don't know how you managed to pull it off."

Marisa, with her eyes looking at more than just Tenshi, notices Kokoro in the center of this whole ordeal with a completely disbelieving glare in her eyes. Quickly tapping on Reimu's left shoulder, the Ordinary Magician says to the shrine maiden "Hey Reimu, isn't that the Youkai who caused an incident involving emotional manipulation just a short while ago?"

Looking where Marisa points, Reimu stares at Kokoro for a few seconds and immediately recognizes her. After quietly saying to herself "Oh hey, that explains how Tenshi has caused all this trouble…" The shrine maiden pauses for a couple eerie moments.

Once she is done with that she cranks her head around like a robot to face Marisa and with a twitch of her right eyebrow towards the Ordinary Magician she says in a partially unhinged yet quiet tone of voice "Marisa…You didn't really put two and two together about this whole ordeal from the start?"

Nervously chuckling, Marisa responds to Reimu by saying "Well to be fair Reimu, I don't really remember the names of most of the Youkai and other assorted beings we come across during these incidents unless we see them a lot afterwards. Besides, I kind of thought that if we tried to solve an incident the old-fashioned way you might not go back to the shrine and get yourself drunk again."

Reimu snaps, her eyes widening as she says to the Ordinary Magician "WELL A LOT OF GOOD THAT DID ME! BECAUSE WE WASTED TIME WITH ALL THOSE OTHER BOSSES, HOLY BITCH AND THE EGOTIST GOT HERE BEFORE US! …AND I'M PROBABLY ALL OUT OF SAKE AT THE SHRINE NOW, SO I CAN'T EVEN GET DRUNK AFTER THIS IS ALL OVER!"

Reimu's heated breath forces Marisa to close her eyelids and endure the drunken stench of her friend until she stops yelling, at which point a rather peeved Tenshi speaks up and says with her left finger brandished towards the four figures "You know what? I'm not afraid of you four. With Kokoro by my side, we will defeat you all and ensure Gensokyo's safety."

The Celestial's comment caused Reimu to turn away from Marisa and say bluntly with one hand resting against her right hip "Oh, you mean like how you 'ensured Gensokyo's safety' the last time you were here by planting a keystone into my shrine with he intention of breaking this realm with a massive earthquake?"

Kokoro is the one to vocally react to this despite Tenshi flinching in shock behind her. "Huh? What are you talking about Reimu?" Meanwhile, the Celestial can only think to herself _"Craaaaaaap."_

"What, you don't know? That Celestial is a massive pain in the ass who knocked down my shrine twice, beat up a bunch of people, and in general is nothing more than a spoiled brat! Seriously, how could you not know any of this after spending just a couple weeks in Gensokyo?" Reimu's words resonate partial within Kokoro's body, causing her eyes to widen as her arms lower even further while the Fox mask appears beside her face.

However, Tenshi takes note of this and quickly responds to Reimu's words while simultaneously addressing the other three figures "I honestly can't believe you people." Her voice is somewhat haughty yet reeks of accusation towards the figures, with her body rising and a scoff coming from her mouth as she brandishes a finger at Reimu.

"I can't believe all of you are harassing a sweet and innocent Youkai with all these lies just to turn her against me because you know all too well that I can take all four of you at once. Tell me, why should Kokoro listen to the words of a jerkass shrine maiden who can't even do her own job, a clearly eccentric if not insane magician, a Buddhist with a rather checkered past, and a Taoist who clearly refuses to refute any accusations made towards her. Kokoro is my friend, and we are going to save Gensokyo from its emotional turmoil. If anyone is causing any incidents, its you four for getting in our way!" Tenshi ends off her silver-tongued lie with a swing of her right arm and a smile that manages to earn a scowl from Reimu, a glare from Marisa and Byakuren, and silence once more from Miko.

Kokoro starts to raise her arms up again, finding herself believing in Tenshi's goals much to the Celestial's joy, but something breaks through the silence covering the distance between the four figure and Tenshi. "If I was incapable of keeping my emotions in check, this would be the part where I would cut you down where you stand, Celestial."

It was Miko, who slowly creaks her eyelids and stared at Tenshi stoically, something that somehow managed to frighten the Celestial as the Taoist lowered her shaku and parted her arms, saying in an inquiring voice "Tell me Celestial, you appear to know so much about all of us…So I must ask you, do you know what my ability is?"

"I don't see how that matters in the slightest." Tenshi says with an arrogant scoff, failing to notice Kokoro staring back at her with a surprised look in her eyes.

Miko stares at Tenshi and smiles, saying as she swings her shaku holding arm off to the side to make her cape flow in the breeze "My ability is to listen to the ten desires, which allows me to discern both the personality and motives of whomever I encounter."

Tenshi's eyes widen and her posture becomes uneasy as she stutters out a response of "I-Is that so?"

The Taoist leader continues to address the Celestial without responding to her words, saying in a docile tone "I've been quiet up until this point Celestial because I've been trying to discern if you were the same person whose mischievous desires I heard before alerted me towards the start of this whole incident. I can see now that my suspicions were right on the dot though, for it is easy to listen in on the desires of someone who wished to be done with their 'tool'. Oh that's right, you call your tool by her real name, don't you? After all, 'its easy to lie to timid folk in order to manipulate and oppress them', yes? I'm pretty certain you are the one who told Kokoro that, hmm?"

As Tenshi scowls and Kokoro starts to hang her head while listening to everything Miko is saying with a look of utter shock, the Crown Prince continues on her way with "While its true that all four of us have our faults, in the end we all have the same goal of keeping Gensokyo safe, even if some of us are less vocal about it then others are. Our intentions here are not to make Kokoro fight against you. We want nothing more than to make sure that she is not destroyed by blindly following a devilish Celestial such as yourself. Oh, and as far as your accusation towards me attempting to destroy Kokoro's identity as a Youkai goes? That is just one of my many flaws. My intention was to help Kokoro replace what she had lost so she would be happy. I never even considered for a moment that the consequences of such an act would have run the risk of Kokoro being destroyed in the process, but if I did know that such consequences existed I never would have attempted to replace the Mask of Hope."

Miko's glare becomes a little more serious as she continues on to the last part of her speech towards the Celestial "But I've heard about the things you've done in the past, Tenshi. You attacked Gensokyo with an Earthquake knowing all too well the consequences that would occur. In fact, you INVITED the danger those consequences had to offer as a means of alleviating your own boredom, and you cared little about who or what you damaged to get what you wanted. So to hear you call Kokoro such things as 'innocent' and 'sweet' makes me feel nothing but disgust towards you, for the only thing you perceive her as is a tool to do your mischievous bidding. Now, what does the silver-tongued snake have to say about all of this?"

Miko's words have left Reimu, Marisa and Byakuren all in utter silence, while Tenshi can only tremble nervously at everything unraveling around her. She clenched her right hand tightly and grit her teeth, glaring with a hung head in anger towards the Crown Prince as she thinks to herself _"Why? Why did this have to happen now?! I was so close to just putting this whole matter behind me…Ugh, damn that Taoist bitch, she's ruined everything! N-No…Wait a moment, I can still salvage this…I know I can…Kokoro can't honestly have believed everything she said…" _

Extending her left hand out in an almost desperate manner, Tenshi says to Kokoro in a nervous stutter "Come on now Kokoro…Why should you believe anything they have to say? What have any of them offered you?"

Kokoro doesn't say anything, the Fox mask beside her face trembling in a foreboding manner as Miko looks at the Celestial and shakes her head out of shame towards the pitiful creature. Tenshi then says in a more desperate voice "I protected you from harm, I supported your decisions, and I cared for you when others tried to harm you! …Damn it Kokoro, look at me and say something!"

The menreiki responds quietly with only two simple yet piercing words "Shut up…"

Tenshi is confused by these words, but notices that Kokoro's hands are tensing up and goes on to say in a nervous stutter "K-K-Kokoro? What are you say-"

With fists suddenly clenching up as the Fox mask trembles rapidly like an encroaching earthquake, Kokoro blurts out in a tone of flustered anger "I WANT ALL OF YOU TO JUST SHUT UP!"

The menreiki Youkai had snapped, her stoicism breaking in such a sudden way that everyone surrounding her don't pay nearly enough attention to the Fox mask as without warning, it shatters apart into nothingness, releasing from its remnants a powerful shockwave of pure raw emotional flames that actually strikes Byakuren, Miko, Marisa and Reimu and sends them crashing straight through a wall of the closest house in the Human Village. Miko is the only one who survives being knocked unconscious thanks to her shaku blocking most of the impact, but as her body is covered by the rock debris from the wall of the house she can only blink twice in disbelief and think to herself _"W-What was that?"_

Back with the Celestial and Kokoro, Tenshi has only managed to keep her position by quickly summoning a keystone to block the shockwave, which shatters and disintegrates upon making contact with such raw emotional energy. With mass confusion covering the Celestial's face, she stutters out quietly "K-K-Kokoro…What's happening to you?"

The menreiki, after a moment of silence, swings her arms out and with a gesture of her hands summons forth two fans made of pure light-blue emotional energy, though the aura projected around them is three times large and more wild in shape than they are normally. A similarly shaped aura surrounds Kokoro's body as she turns around and faces Tenshi, one of her fans pointed angrily at the Celestial as she looks at her with surprisingly furious eyes and a disbelieving frown on her face. "I can't believe I ever trusted you! You lied to me all this time and only saw me as a tool!" Long gone was the innocent stoic words of the menreiki Youkai. This tone of bitter anger, which Tenshi hated to hear with all of her being, sounded like it came from a teenaged Kokoro, and only served to increase the stress weighing upon the Celestial's heart.

"No Kokoro, that's not what I thought of you. Listen to me, when I was thinking about a tool I-" Tenshi's final attempt at an explanation was met with an interrupting exclamation from Kokoro "Shut up! I don't want to hear anything else you have to say! You are going to pay for using me for your own ends!"

"…Kokoro, you don't want to go down this path. Your powers won't work on me, and fighting me won't solve this incident." Tenshi calmly speaks to Kokoro, hoping that such emotions would affect the menreiki Youkai.

However, Kokoro raises her eyebrows intensely as she glares at the Celestial, saying to her "You think I'm going to use my masks on you? No Tenshi, you're right in saying that will accomplish nothing. No, I'm going to teach you an emotion through battle…Prepare, Tenshi Hinanawi, to learn the emotion of eternal pain!"

As Kokoro crosses her fans in front of her body and prepares for battle against the Celestial, Tenshi can only grit her teeth as she reluctantly summons her Hisou no Tsurugi and prepares a keystone to ride on top of, thinking to herself in a melancholy tone _"Oh Kokoro…You don't understand just how painful it is for me to have to fight you…" _

_Next Time: The Masquerade Ends_


	15. Final Chapter

**Final Chapter: Breakdown of the Masquerade ~ Heartquake Super Shock**

On top of a nicely arranged set of branches not far off from the Human Village, Mamizou has assembled a checkered blanket for herself to kneel down on while also placing a nice arrangement of tea in front of where she sits. She is quietly observing the events that unfold below, paying especially close attention to Kokoro as one of the Youkai's masks break, which causes the tanuki to think to herself as she sips a cup of tea _"Hmm…So that is what happens. I must keep that in mind."_

A boom of powerful thunder suddenly forces the tanuki to look towards the sky, noticing that the pristine blue atmosphere is slowly being eclipsed by the sudden appearance of blackened clouds, all of which summon forth bolts of light-blue lightning at periodic intervals. This phenomenon is rather worrisome for the tanuki, who is able to observe things that are happening at a far distance and happens to notice a few cracks appearing along what can only be assumed as the edge of Gensokyo itself.

The usually docile Mamizou actually slants her eyebrows out of concern for this event, and whispers in a worried tone "Oh dear, it seems not even this realm is immune to Kokoro's emotional disease…Or maybe something else it going on here. Wouldn't your master agree, you nekomata shikigami?"

As Mamizou takes another sip of her tea while making such an interesting comment to an unknown figure, the bushel of leaves behind where she sits rustles timidly, and a nervous meow could be heard quietly behind them all. The tanuki, however, keeps glancing forward as the Celestial takes to the skies on her keystone while Kokoro follows in hot pursuit, a wispy trail of blue fire exuding from behind her body as she chases after Tenshi.

As the Celestial flies through the air, she looks at Kokoro with a surprising amount of panic in her eyes. The Youkai had a rather piercing glare on her that contradicts all other behavior Tenshi had observed from her up until now, and this only furthered the guilt that was weighing in on the Celestial's heart. _"Damn it Kokoro…What happened to you? This isn't like you at all…" _

Scoffing at what she just thought as she grasps her Hisou no Tsurugi and steadily positions herself upright on her keystone, Tenshi proceeded to think _"Heh, and now I of all people am questioning that. With all that has been happening, I'm the one who hasn't been acting like myself at all…"_

Reaching into her hat, Tenshi pulls out a spell card and allows it to float before her body, its form spinning around multiple times as she realizes then and there that with Kokoro as furious as she is, there is no way that she could avoid conflict. _"But those issues don't matter right now. I need to subdue Kokoro…That's the only way that I will be able to try and explain everything to her." _

"Earthquake -Evacuation Along the Steep Path-!" Tenshi proclaims the name of her spell card while confidently swinging her sword through it halfway.

"_If there's one thing I know I'm good at even during this emotional crisis of mine, it's a spell card duel." _With a battle determined smile on her face for the time being, Tenshi stands atop her keystone as from behind her body descends dozens of other keystones, most of them aiming straight for the Youkai while the rest have their courses plotted out by the Celestial's will to intercept Kokoro if she tries to weave out of the way.

"Fine…You want a fight Tenshi, then I will gladly tear you apart!" Kokoro says something for the first time in a short while, her vicious tone matching up perfectly with her flaring spirit blue aura as she swings the fans grasped in her arms outward and straightens her body partially, keeping a diagonal slant forward as she charges towards the keystones without any hesitation.

With a bitter swing of her arm in front of her body, Kokoro tosses her fans out like boomerangs towards the encroaching keystones, their spiritual composition hardening immensely to the point that they have become deadly blades that are capable of cutting straight through the planet itself with ease. This newfound strength created by a connection to the Youkai's intense anger allows the fans to cleave through every keystone that crosses their path. Though Tenshi is a bit surprised by Kokoro doing this, especially as the fans curve back towards their master by flying near both sides of her face, she dissolves her flinching expression quickly and grins at what was about to happen.

The keystones that Kokoro cut down shatter entirely and release a barrage of scarlet danmaku bullets that home-in on the Youkai in full force. The combined might of the bullets would prove to be more than enough to weaken this rampaging young menreiki, were it not for something the Celestial could truly not have predicted. The aura around Kokoro's body, so thick with emotional energy created by her anger, is so ludicrously strong that it defies all standard Spell Card rules and allows her to completely tank the danmaku that impacts against her body without her so much as flinching.

In fact, this attack only makes Kokoro angrier, and she slants her eyebrows while glaring furiously at the unhinged Tenshi. The Celestial, completely taken aback by the Youkai no-selling her Spell Card, lets out a stuttered response of "N-No way…"

As dozens more keystones fall down around the Youkai and break apart upon reaching a certain point behind her, Kokoro catches her fans and folds them in front of her body, the aura around herself begins to expand and become thicker in color, the aura eclipsing her body completely as it melds into the shape of a elongated dragon, the tail of which only has to swing once before the danmaku from the keystones are destroyed. Kokoro launches herself at Tensh a second later, spiraling around through the air and breaking through multiple keystones without even realizing it.

Tenshi is forced to make a sharp glide to the left in order to avoid being devastated by Kokoro's attack, and as she turns her head to watch as the Youkai finishes her attack off where she once floated dozens of keystones explode and fill the sky with a multitude of Danmaku from all parts of the aura dragon. The backdrop of these multiple explosions is a crashing lightning bolt behind the shrinking aura around the Youkai's body, but Tenshi doesn't consider the storm to be a different phenomenon and chalks it up as an aftereffect of Kokoro's attack.

Once Tenshi stops in place she twists her body around to face the floating Youkai and swings her sword out beside her body, drawing from her hat with her left hand a second spell card as she grits her teeth and thinks to herself _"Ok, so simple Danmaku attacks aren't going to hurt Kokoro, but I can't use anything too strong or she might die." _

"Earth Sign -Pillar to the High Heavens-!" Slashing through the spell card with the Hisou no Tsurugi, Tenshi leaves her body slanted in mid-air after the swing of her arm as the ground of Gensokyo trembles below her. After Kokoro has turned her head and determined where the Celestial is fleeing to, she quickly kicks after her with fans swung beside her body, though this time she summons forth the Uba and Raiden masks beside her skirt to aid her in battle against Tenshi.

Both masks launch a rapid-fired barrage of bullets of differing designs, with the Uba's shots resembling glowing blue teardrops and the Raiden masks' shots come out in the form of compressed streams of dark blue lightning. The Celestial takes the Hisou no Tsurugi and slams it into the front of her keystone, summoning forth a second one that takes the brunt of Kokoro's lightning attack on the right side of her body and keeps itself positioned perfectly so the Youkai can't singe her with one wrong movement. After that, Tenshi pulls out the sword and swing it rapidly and gracefully in front of her body at a downward slant, the flurry of blows proving effective in stopping Kokoro's secondary Danmaku attacks while the Celestial waits for her spell card to finally take effect.

After a couple more seconds where it appears as though Kokoro is gaining ground (or in this case sky) on Tenshi a pillar of pure grey stone erupts from the surface of Gensokyo and blocks Kokoro's path, forcing the menreiki to pause in place for a moment and then glide around the edge of the pillar in order to continue pursuing Tenshi. However, there was not just one pillar that Kokoro would have to overcome, but an almost maze-like array of dozens that erupt from the ground one after the other with their only purpose being to get in Kokoro's way.

While Kokoro is seen dodging and weaving through the pillars that rise up high into the sky, Tenshi swipes her left arm across her forehead and says quietly to herself "Whew…That should hold her off for a bit."

But while she sounds confident in what she just said, deep within her mind the Celestial still couldn't get over how conflicting it was for her to be forced into battle against Kokoro, and this very confliction causes her to lower her eyebrows in a somber manner and say after a sigh "So this is what its like to feel the consequences of your actions…I can't believe I'd say this, but that damn oni was right…Its all fun and games until you break an oblivious little girl's innocence…"

Tenshi's melancholy demeanor is broken as she hears something crumbling apart in the distance, and a shift of her head upward allows her to see that Kokoro has chosen to re-direct the focus of her Danmaku towards the front of her body so she can break a large gap through the pillars and not waste precious seconds going around them. This allows her to regain her previous pace and slowly start catching up with Tenshi, which causes the Celestial to panic slightly as she thinks to herself _"Well, that wasn't what I expected to happen…Better redirect the emergence point of one of the pillars like so…"_

With a snap of her left fingers beside her body, Tenshi focuses on a pillar that is about to appear behind her flight path and changes where it is going to emerge from. As the angered Kokoro gets only ten feet away from the Celestial's body, Tenshi cracks a somewhat hesitant smile that brings only a hint of caution and confusion to the Youkai's face before just a second later a stone pillar erupts from the ground and smashes against her underside, pushing her high up into the air at unimaginable speeds as Tenshi continues to fly backwards, poking her head up to observe the pillar as it pierces the clouds in the sky.

"Well, at least it will stop before it reaches the edge of Gensokyo's atmosphere, so Kokoro shouldn't suffocate. Now that she's gone for the time being…" Tenshi's relief is broken almost instantly as she looks up and sees a light-blue light breaking through the bottom of the clouds, followed by a mighty rupture of sound as she looks at the pillar Kokoro was attached and notices light-blue cracks forming along the structure, and before the Celestial could blink her eyes in disbelief the pillar shatters into thousands of chunks. _"Are you kidding me?! Just how freaking strong is Kokoro right now?!"_ Tenshi thinks to herself in utter disbelief.

Speaking of the menreiki, the Youkai pierces through the clouds enveloped in a bullet of aura that makes her look like a shooting star that glimmers inconspicuously among the dark black backdrop. Kokoro descends rapidly, moving faster than a blurring rocket at the Celestial as she scowls and grips her Hisou no Tsurugi in both hands, swinging it behind her body and extending both its length and girth while saying quietly "If you want a straight up confrontation, then fine Kokoro…"

After saying those words and stabilizing the strength of her sword, Tenshi swings the blade in front of body at the very second that Kokoro appears in front of her, the sharp edge of the blade colliding with the solidified fans crosses in front of the vengeful Youkai's body and creating a dual-shockwave of emotional energy and scarlet energy that spreads out far enough that the bottom edge blows apart bits of the ground below the two of them. With Kokoro scowling at Tenshi and the Celestial gritting her teeth as she tries to keep her offensive from being surpassed, the two stare at each other between the glow of their weapons.

Tenshi smiles coyly for a moment though, which puzzles Kokoro immensely. The inner workings of the Celestial's crafty mind are currently thinking about how convenient this particular confrontation is for her, and these thoughts are as follows _"Excellent, once the Hisou no Tsurugi converts Kokoro's spiritual nature, it will change its attributes so I can counter her aura."_

But after a few seconds of keeping the sword clashing against Kokoro's fans, Tenshi is puzzled by a lack of change in the blade, and her confident smile slowly breaks down as she thinks to herself _"Ummm…Why isn't anything happening? This should be working, no questions asked!" _

After a couple moments to think about what was happening, Tenshi widens her eyes and comes to a realization _"Craaaaap, the Hisou no Tsurugi can't work on someone like Kokoro! All those masks of hers give her more than one type of spiritual nature, so my sword can't change itself to counter her aura! Damn it all to hell!" _

Tenshi's frustrations push out of her mind and onto her expression, something which Kokoro catches onto and says furiously as she starts to push the Celestial's sword back "How does it feel to have your plans crumble around you, liar?!"

Tenshi fights back verbally against the Youkai though, saying in a somewhat agonized tone of guilt "Oh believe me Kokoro, it doesn't feel good in the slightest!"

"No! You aren't allowed to feel guilty for your actions! You used me for your own nefarious ends, you saw me only as a tool for your own amusement, and you led me on into believing that you actually cared about me as something other than a collection of masks!" Kokoro lets her angered frustrations be known to the Celestial, her eyes widening immensely all the while as she expresses disgust towards Tenshi for her choice of tone.

"You don't actually believe that, do you? I mean do you honestly think that all the times I protected you was done out of a sense of preserving a lie?!" Tenshi rebuttals in a more rational manner.

"Yes! Of course you would want to protect your precious tool! The fun would end for you if anything deadly were to happen to me, so of course you would protect me, because in the end you were only fulfilling your selfish desires!" Kokoro answers the Celestial's rebuttal with more angered words, and again pushes the sword a little further back.

Sinking her eyelids in regret partially, Tenshi says to Kokoro "No, you're right…At first, all I saw you as was a tool, and I was completely selfish in my desire to use you for entertainment…But all this time that we've spent together, no matter how short, made me actually feel guilty for using you like that, and my concern for your well-being became genuine in turn."

Kokoro is actually momentarily swayed by Tenshi's words, her offensive decreasing to the point that the sword is pushed closer to her body before she regains the full strength of her anger and grits her teeth, exclaiming in response to the Celestial's words "Stop lying to me! If you truly cared for my well-being, you would have told me the truth about your actions instead of hiding behind lie after lie until someone else exposed you for the deceiver you are!"

"Do you honestly think it would've been that easy Kokoro?!" Tenshi's eyes flares up in disbelief of what the Youkai was saying, a tear starting to creak out from her ducts as she presses against Kokoro's fans and says to her "Yes I lied, that can never be ignored, but I was so far deep into my own lies that I knew there was literally no way that I could feasibly tell you the truth without being forced to tell another set of lies!"

Glaring with slanted eyebrows, Kokoro says in a firm yet subdued tone of anger "Well that's not my problem, is it now?"

"No it isn't Kokoro, and I take full responsibility for everything I have done. But even so, you are wasting your time fighting me! Before that damn Buddhist and Taoist got in the way, I was about to save all of Gensokyo from a terrible incident!" Tenshi changes subjects on the fly, but her choice of words leaves Kokoro less than impressed.

"LIAR! I can't believe you are still trying to deceive me after all other lies have been exposed! You were never trying to change Gensokyo's emotions for the better, you only wanted to see them trip over their own feet and laugh at them all in your mind! And now that everything has crumbled, you expect me to believe that you're doing all this to save Gensokyo from an incident?! I can't believe that someone as despicable as you could exist in this realm!" Kokoro, despite rushing back into a surge of anger, almost looks to be on the verge of tears as she yells at Tenshi.

"Kokoro, you don't know the big picture here! I'm the only one who can save Gensokyo from the trouble I caused!" Tenshi tries to let her plight be known, but Kokoro was having known of that.

"Oh, you mean like when you saved Gensokyo with that earthquake?!" Kokoro's piercing words, reflected from the mouth of Reimu Hakurei, break through the Celestial's blackened heart and actually cause her resolve to weaken to the point that the Youkai is able to push back the blade merely inches away from Tenshi's face before she regains her strength and tries to fight back.

Kokoro starts speaking tearfully at this point, though her anger is still a prominent part of her words as she says to Tenshi "I know the big picture here Tenshi! You may have tricked me into believing that you were doing everything for the good of Gensokyo, but that doesn't mean that I didn't genuinely want to help everyone out! You used my obliviousness against me without hesitation and harmed many people both physically and emotionally without so much as a care in the world! And to think that I almost considered you to be like an older sister to me…"

This revelation from Kokoro makes Tenshi's eyes widen in disbelief, and she whispers out in a melancholy stutter "K-Kokoro…I had no idea that-"

"SHUT UP!" Kokoro lets her emotions flare out, her tears leaving her face as she declares to the Celestial "I don't have any reason to believe anything you have or will ever say to me Tenshi! Gensokyo will be better off without a snake like you around to harm anyone ever again!"

Kokoro's declaration made Tenshi quickly realize that words were not going to dissuade the Youkai no matter what she said, so with her eyelids closing and a disappointed frown on her face the Celestial focused on the spell card she had activated before and had a pillar of stone quickly thrust up directly below her body. The keystone Tenshi stands on shatters apart, forcing the Celestial to leap back and shrink the size of her Hisou no Tsurugi to normal as she is caught by a second keystone. Kokoro positions herself upright as the stone pillar along with all the others disappear without a trace as Tenshi deactivates the spell card on her own. With the Celestial standing quietly before her, the Youkai folds her arms out beside her body with the fans still grasped and the two masks floating beside her and says angrily "Do you give up now, Tenshi?!"

Tenshi holds her sword in her left hand and looks over at Kokoro as the storm around the two of them worsens slightly, the wind that arises from it blowing aside the back of the Celestial's hair as she extends and bends her right arm by the elbow, slanting her body while saying to the Youkai "Kokoro, words cannot persuade you and my regular Danmaku cannot affect you while you are this angered by what I've done. But I still believe I can show you that my words are not bluster, that I did truly come to care for you as more than just a collection of masks…"

With her right fingers spreading out, a spell card with a mysterious scarlet aura appears above Tenshi's palm, its form spinning around slowly as the Celestial says to Kokoro "Allow me to show you a Spell Card born from my heart…This is my Last Word, Kokoro."

With a swing of her Hisou no Tsurugi through the Spell Card without declaring its name, Tenshi quickly plants her sword into her keystone and closes her eyelids as a shockwave of power ruffles her clothes and hair upward for a moment. Placing both of her hands on top of the sword and going into an almost meditative state, the Celestial readies her Last Word, which Kokoro desires to avoid confronting and is quick to launch a barrage of Danmaku bullets from her two masks. However, one of the effects of Tenshi's Last Word activate, and a spherical shield of dozens of keystones appears to protect its master from the Youkai's assault.

As Gensokyo rumbles below both fighters, Kokoro quickly swings her fans out like projectiles to carve through the keystones, the two objects managing to make it through roughly half of them before returning to their master. However, before the Youkai can go through the attack again, all the keystones, including the one Tenshi stands on, crumble apart. As the Celestial floats in the center of the sky mysteriously, a mass array of stone pillars rise up from the ground below, all of them arranged far and wide in an unknown shape as they pick up both fighters by the feet and carry them high into the sky. The top of the pillars were covered in water, for they emerged from the Misty Lake that the two of them just so happened to be above at that very moment. The pillars eventually stop a good few yards away from the bottom of the dark clouds.

At this elevation, Kokoro becomes a bit disoriented for a moment, especially since she was suddenly forced to a stop atop these stone pillars. But as she looks around and sees the water draining between the cracks in the pillars, the Youkai is interrupted by a powerful scarlet glow coming from the corner of her vision, which forces her to look up and see what was happening.

Tenshi now floats in the center of all these pillars, her Hisou no Tsurugi positioned in front of her hands as it spins rapidly in circles, the energy exuding from it causing the hair and skirt of the Celestial to flutter about wildly behind her body as she looks down at Kokoro with a determined look in her eye and declares "No matter what it takes Kokoro, I'm going to bring you to your senses! Now come at me if you can!"

From the skies around Gensokyo, scarlet mist gathers into Tenshi's Hisou no Tsurugi, creating a barely compressed sphere around the sword as Kokoro prepares to leap at the Celestial to attack. However, a straight up assault will not work in the Youkai's favor this time, as the sphere breaks apart and releases a multitude of thin crimson lasers in all directions, leaving barely any gap between them as they spread out across the battlefield. Mid-leap, Kokoro is forced to take the brunt of about five lasers, which surprisingly are able to pierce through the Youkai's aura and touch her body, dealing a meager yet an important amount of damage, since this makes Kokoro have to not rely entirely on her anger for the moment to deal with Tenshi's Last Word.

After the first onslaught, Tenshi charges in more scarlet energy and fires another onslaught of lasers. Kokoro zips backwards to give the lasers enough time to increase the size of the gaps between them, at which point she leaps between one of the gaps and fires her own Danmaku at the Celestial. Though the bullets all collide with Tenshi's body, she doesn't even flinch in the slightest as more scarlet energy is gathered around the Hisou no Tsurugi. This time around though the attack fired off is different, as four smaller spheres of scarlet energy appears around the Celestial's body, each one firing off three streams of lasers in four diagonal directions, offering more of a defense around her body as she launches off another barrage of miniature lasers.

Kokoro is a little harder pressed to dodge these attacks, especially since the spheres move around Tenshi's body and burn across the top of the pillars as they try to strike her body. The Youkai leaps into the air and slips between a few miniature lasers, getting out of range of the streams for the moment before flinging her fans at the Celestial. The aura empowered fans cut right through Tenshi's body and swing back around to their master, but the Celestial shows no signs of damage and once again doesn't flinch as she keeps her eyes focused on the Youkai.

With another mass of scarlet energy forming around the Hisou no Tsurugi, Tenshi points the blade towards Kokoro as she floats in mid-air and prematurely releases a foggy spray of scarlet energy that passes through the Youkai's body and makes her skin tingle in an unnatural manner. Before the scarlet mist laser is launched at Kokoro the Youkai manages to fly off to the right, descending simultaneously so she can land on the ground far away from Tenshi's line of sight and launch a counterattack of her own.

Dashing straight forward immediately after touching down on the pillars, Kokoro draws her fans and launches a barrage of Danmaku as a prelude to her second assault, but all of the bullets are absorbed by a sphere of scarlet mist that forms beside Tenshi's body as she begins to turn and face Kokoro once more. Another laser is fired off, this one striking the unsuspecting Youkai straight on and burning apart her light-blue aura in a matter of seconds as Kokoro folds her arms in front of her body to try and block most of the laser. Her body is pushed back along the pillars away from Tenshi, and the Celestial was not about to let up with just that one laser.

Another one starts to form immediately afterwards, and as another fiery aura surrounds Kokoro's body the Youkai is quick to dash off to the right in order to avoid the laser. The attack burns apart the tops of the pillars as it goes through the air, and Tenshi immediately prepares another laser before the last one finishes firing. The Celestial's plan was obvious from this point. By giving Kokoro no room to breath, Tenshi was hoping to wear the Youkai down to the point that she would get hit by laser after laser and eventually be forced unconscious.

But the Youkai, so fiercely determined to end Tenshi after all that she has done, slants her eyebrows angrily and looks on at the Celestial as she prepares yet another laser. When the attack is launched, Kokoro leaps into the air and flies straight at it, using the brunt of her aura along with her own strength to push through the attack despite how the scarlet mist is tearing apart little bits of her clothing near the end and damaging her delicate skin in the process. Tenshi flinches in surprise at the Youkai's almost suicidal charge, this very hesitation preventing her from firing another laser as Kokoro ends up right in front of her body.

The Youkai swings her right arm behind herself and summons forth the Hyottoko mask, widening her eyes in fury after it fully materialized and saying to the Celestial "Its time for you to see what a Last Word is truly capable of, Tenshi!"

Kokoro wastes no time in thrusting her right arm forward and slamming the Hyottoko, which has been infused with most of her hatred, right into the Celestial's face, melding the mask right into the skin of her face. Tenshi's vision is blackened for a moment before being replaced with a frightening swarm of hundreds of masks that are in Kokoro's possession. Tenshi's focus on the Hisou no Tsurugi is broken and her body is left limp in place, and the Youkai is quick to take advantage of the Celestial's helplessness.

Clapping her fans down to their flat wooden states, Kokoro points the left one at Tenshi as the snap of the fans causes the area to become pitch white, both her body and the Celestial's becoming inky black only when the darkness created by Kokoro's Last Word snaps into the white background. Kokoro first strikes Tenshi by leaping into the air and gracefully swinging the sharp edge of the fans against Tenshi's body, creating a swathe of inky blood against the white backdrop. The second attack brings Kokoro behind Tenshi, where she cleaved the Celestial with a graceful charge and a slash of her right fan, a wave of inky blood appearing above Tenshi afterwards.

Kokoro then swings in front of Tenshi and slashes upward with her fan, the blood turning into a blotched splatter above the Celestial's body. Kokoro then discards her fans momentarily and creates a sharp-bladed pike that she thrusts into Tenshi's body, a splatter of blood thrusting out behind the Celestial, which is then followed up by Kokoro summoning her fans again and doing an uppercut slash that knocks Tenshi upward, followed quickly by her performing a spinning splash after she rises up and puts herself on level with the Celestial. The next two attacks are performed so quickly that one cannot discern what happens, but the penultimate attack is performed by a strong upward slash from Kokoro's pike that cleaves through the darkness in the form of a crescent light-blue scar.

One final slash is performed that destroys the rhythm of the beating darkness, a circular cut with the pike ending with Kokoro holding the blade of her weapon downward as she glares at Tenshi intensely, watching as the Hyottoko fades back into her own body and the white backdrop vanishes entirely. The Celestial, with eyes widened in disbelief, floats in place for a few quiet moments with bloody tears across her skin and clothing before the combined efforts of Kokoro's attacks cause the barrier protecting from harm during her own Last Word to shatter apart in the form of a resounding shockwave that occurs at the same time as the fall of a lightning bolt in the background.

The end of Tenshi's Last Word launches the Celestial's body straight down through the center of her array of pillars, the momentum of her body breaking right through the pillar and creating a massive crack that spreads through to the top and bottom of the arena. Helpless to save herself thanks to all of the damage she has taken, Tenshi descends faster and faster through the central pillar until she finally splashes down into the Misty Lake, at which point the pillars start to crumble apart from the bottom upward. As Kokoro straightens her body in mid-air and dispels her pike and masks, she looks down upon the collapsing arena and immediately freezes in place.

From this far up above the arena, Kokoro could make out the shape it once had as that of a heart. With anger still residing in her body, the Youkai scowled and whispered to herself "What is up with this?"

Kokoro's eyelids perk up as two halves of a piece of paper begin to descend from the sky, and without even thinking much about it she extends her right hand and lets the paper fall onto her hand. These pieces of paper were both halves of Tenshi's Last Word, reformed into existence after it had been broken but unable to return to its master for repairs thanks to her current condition. Out of slight curiosity, the Youkai looks at the card and describes it quietly to herself "Lunatic Level Spell Card 'Spirit Sign -Heartquake Super Shock-' Information: …"

Kokoro pauses for a moment as she glances over the information inscribed onto the card, which takes the form of a message to the menreiki that says truthfully to her "Kokoro, I'm truly, truly sorry for everything I have done to you…I too thought of you as something of a younger sister, but I could not bring myself to tell you that directly…I guess in the end the only one in Gensokyo who wasn't showing their true emotions was me."

Everything that was said on this spell card made Kokoro clench her fingers tightly around the two halves of paper, her scowl trembling as her anger lessens greatly and she mumbles to herself "Damn it all Tenshi…" As lightning crashes around the Youkai, she quickly looks down at the Misty Lake after all of the pillars have vanished and notices that Tenshi has not yet come up.

Kokoro's eyes widen, as she recalls what the Celestial had said only a couple days ago about her being unable to swim, and after tucking the spell card away inside of her shirt the Youkai quickly descends upon the Misty Lake with arms folded beside her body. Once she nears the surface of the lake though she takes a deep breath and plunges her arms forward into the cold water, a brief shock coursing through her body as she goes after the sinking Celestial.

Tenshi, with vision blurred immensely by the water, looks up towards the surface as water begins to enter through her nostrils. With a somber look in her eyes, the Celestial thinks to herself _"So this is how I die…Defeated by Kokoro and sent plummeting into the depths of this icy lake…"_

But as the Celestial sunk further and further, not a single moment of her life flashing before her eyes as she simultaneously feels no regrets subconsciously. _"…So in the end I really enjoyed everything I did…Everyone I hurt, all the people I trampled over…I relished in it all…I really am a terrible person…"_

Tenshi closes her eyelids and accepts her fate as it drags her further into the pressurized, chilly depths…

But minutes later, without an explanation, the Celestial feels something pounding away at her chest, and as she coughs out water through her mouth and starts breathing somewhat normally again she opens her eyes. With her vision clearing up, Tenshi sees that Kokoro is kneeling on top of her body with her hands pushed against her chest as she tries to pump the water from her body. The Youkai still has an angered look in her eyes as she does this, which only brings a massive amount of confusion to the Celestial.

"K-Kokoro…*Cough*…What are you doing?" Tenshi asks, looking around and noticing that she is lying on the shore of the Misty Lake.

The menreiki lifts her right hand up away from the Celestial's body and clenches it tightly into the shape of a fist, keeping Tenshi pinned to the ground with her left hand as she grits her teeth and says to her "I'm going to kill you myself. A body of water doesn't deserve the honor!"

Still insisting on ending the Celestial's life, Kokoro glares down at Tenshi as she says "I told you once already Kokoro…Killing me won't solve this incident."

The Youkai grits her teeth and says in blunt anger "Stop! Stop lying to me! There is no incident going on, there never was one in the first place! Why do you insist on lying to me so much?!"

Tenshi, finally having enough of Kokoro's shit, widens her eyes and says with a blunt tone of honesty "Fine, you want me to be honest?! I spoke to that tanuki friend of yours last night, and she told me that because you've been using your emotion controlling powers so much a disease has spread across most of Gensokyo and changed other people's emotions against their will! My plan today was to use the Philosopher's Stone in combination with your powers to turn everyone back to normal, but I couldn't bring myself to do it because I knew it would be difficult to explain the sudden change in behavior to you!"

Kokoro pauses upon hearing Tenshi explain everything in detail to her, and she believes what was said simply because she had already seen the effects of the disease at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. But after a drawn out pause, the Youkai grits her teeth at Tenshi and says to her "…I want you be honest with me one more time then…Would the Philosopher's Stone drain my energy to use?'

Tenshi slants her gaze off to the side and says reluctantly "…No, it wouldn't."

Loosening her right hand, Kokoro digs into Tenshi's skirt and goes for the Philosopher's Stone, grasping it tightly in her hand as she quickly stands up in front of the Celestial and raises the Stone towards the stormy sky, focusing her power into it and spreading her emotion controlling power across Gensokyo, in an instant turning everyone who had been changed by her powers either directly or indirectly back to normal. This spectacle occurs for only a couple seconds and with a blinding flash of light-blue light the Philosopher's Stone crumbles apart, its use now at an end as it becomes dust in the wind. The storm high above Gensokyo fades apart in seconds, something that Tenshi takes notes of as she thinks in her mind _"Wait…That storm wasn't part of Kokoro's anger-induced assault?"_

With Kokoro having corrected the mistakes Tenshi manipulated her into doing, the Youkai turns her back towards the Celestial and begins to float off. In desperation, Tenshi scrambles to try and stand on her feet, only for her weakness to drop her onto her knees, at which point she extends her right arm at Kokoro and says to her "Kokoro wait! You can't end things off like this! I really did care for you, you have to believe me! Kokoro, look at me…please look at me!"

The Celestial's tone became tearful, but Kokoro only closes her eyelids as her anger subsides and the Uba masks appears beside her face. With a few quiet, stoic words the menreiki says "…Please…Just leave me alone, Tenshi."

With Kokoro having a last say in the matter, Tenshi freezes up in her current position as tears begin to trickle down her cheeks, and all she can bring herself to mutter out is "K-Kokoro…I-"

"Eh, you heard the little lady Tenshi, the fun is at an end." A familiar, youthful yet rambunctious voice enters the Celestial's ears, and with a scornful turn of her head to the right Tenshi sees as the oni Suika Ibuki strolls beside her with arms folded behind her head.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Tenshi exclaims in anger confusion.

"I told you from the start Tenshi, I'd be here to drag you back to Bhava-agra when you screwed everything up. Now don't make this hard on yourself and just let me take you back." Suika unfolds her arms from behind her head and folds her right fingers around her left fist, cracking the bones in her knuckles with a single twist.

The Celestial glares furiously at the accursed oni and exclaims to her "Go to hell and leave me alone, Suika!"

Suika responds snidely with "You know, I'd take that as an insult, but you do realize I did actually live in hell once, right? Now come on, its time to go home."

Reaching underneath the Celestial's body with both arms, Suika picks her up and tosses her over her right shoulder. With a slight smirk towards the menreiki as she glances behind herself to see what was going on, Suika says to Kokoro "Hey, sorry about all the trouble she caused. It probably won't happen again now."

The oni turns her body around and is about ready to leap all the way over to the Youkai Mountains in a single bound, but before she does so Tenshi desperately thrusts her right arm out and says to Kokoro "KOKORO, I'M SO-" However, Suika's sudden leap into the air causes Tenshi's voice to fade into the distance in a split second, leaving the Youkai with only a vague idea of just what the Celestial wanted to say.

Kokoro turns back around and faces the sunny skies in the distance, reaching into her shirt and pulling out the partially drenched halves of Tenshi's Last Word and holding them in her palm with the Monkey mask appearing beside her face as she glares at them. With conflicting feelings welling up inside of her mind, Kokoro silently clenches the Last Word and begins to float along the edge of the Misty Lake to an unknown location…

A few minutes after the end of the incident has occurred, Suika leaps back down into Gensokyo, specifically in the middle of a forest not far off from the Misty Lake. With arms folded behind her back and a laid-back expression on her face, the oni says mysteriously "Alright, I took care of that rag abound Tenshi by bringing her back to Bhava-agra. All in all, I say everything should be back to normal now."

"Ugh, thank goodness for that. Well actually, I wouldn't say that everything is back to normal. I'll still have to deal with a few issues here and there thanks to that Youkai's disease, but I'm just glad to be back to normal now." A second voice with an overjoyed tone responds to Suika's words.

Unfurling her arms, the oni says to this mysterious person "Yeah, now you can go back to hibernating peacefully. Just don't take too long with the repairs, we don't want to have a large-scale problem with the outside world. Anyways, I'll catch you around, and glad I could help."

With those departing words, Suika Ibuki leaps straight out of the forest in the single bound, leaving her mysterious friend alone to her own devices. "Hmm…Well, I should probably get a bit of rest in before I get to work. Now then, where did I leave that g-"

The mysterious person is suddenly interrupted by a plopping sound in front of her, and with a turn of her head downward the person flinches momentarily in surprise. Lying on the ground with a somewhat battered appearance is a nekomata Youkai with two dark-grey tails, black ears with a gold ring piercing on the left, a red dress, and long red polished nails. The tails of this Youkai were twitching to signify that it was still alive, but the mysterious person was still surprised to see the nekomata in such a condition.

Looking up towards the depths of the forest, this person watches as Mamizou slowly walks into view, her arms calmly folded in front of her chest as she looks on at the mysterious figure and says in a serene voice "Well now, I'm surprised that I was able to track you down to here…Yukari Yakumo."

Face to face with the gap Youkai, the tanuki stands her ground confidently yet keeps an air of graceful mysteriousness around her body. Yukari, smiling at the presence of Mamizou, says in a delighted tone as she sits atop one of her gaps in a laid-back position and twirls her umbrella around "Ah, so to what do I owe the pleasure of being confronted by the famed tanuki of Sado?"

Looking down at the battered nekomata, Mamizou first addresses Yukari by saying to her "First off, I'm not certain whether or should feel insulted or surprised at the fact that you sent one of your weakest servants to spy on me."

Yukari waves her left hand in the air casually, saying in a merry tone of voice to Mamizou "I was planning on sending Ran to spy on you, but then another problem came up that required her attention so I was forced to send Chen out instead. I see now that that was probably a miscalculation on my part, since you were able to track me down with her scent thanks to the help of one of your Youkai allies, hmmm?"

"That is correct." Mamizou quietly responds to Yukari's inquiry, giving no leeway to the manipulator of boundaries as she peers through her glasses at the gap Youkai and says to her "So, you want to explain to me just why you attempted to murder Kokoro in cold blood?"

Yukari's eyes slant in a more serious manner for a moment at the tanuki, and as she sits herself upright and crosses her legs the gap Youkai says to Mamizou in an embarrassingly serene tone of voice "I must sadly admit that I was not acting entirely myself during these last couple of days. I became more like a primal Youkai, a cold creature acting only on murderous intentions…Though I suppose your precious menreiki is to blame for that. Even in the protection of my realm, her disease managed to slip through and infect me. So you see, I wasn't entirely in control of my actions."

"What do you mean exactly by 'wasn't entirely'?" Mamizou inquires, refusing to let even a single detail in Yukari's words slip by her perceptive mind as they converse.

Yukari folds her arms forward and smiles brightly, saying to the tanuki in response to her inquiry "While I cannot take responsibility for how cold and mechanical I had become, I will say that there was still just a tiny bit of logic guiding my actions. Part of me did believe at that time that the menreiki needed to die, and now that I have seen how far things went I now fully believe in such a solution to this particular problem."

"And what problem is that, specifically?" Mamizou slyly says, her mind already coming up with the answer to her own question yet her curiosity still desired to hear the words spoken directly from the gap Youkai's mouth.

"You saw what happened, did you not? The disease the menreiki spread infected not only I, but many other strong and dangerous Youkai across Gensokyo. If the problem lied just in those issues, then it would be nothing for me to fret over…But the disease didn't just infected the living, but also the very land of Gensokyo itself. Gensokyo needs to have a particular balance in its atmosphere in order for the Great Hakurei Border to be maintained. Any instability caused to Gensokyo will weaken the barrier and cause it to start crumbling apart, which will either expose the outside world to us or destroy Gensokyo entirely. Now imagine, if you will, what would happen if the outside world was exposed to all the dangerous Youkai in Gensokyo, and consider for a moment how the emotionally unstable Youkai would behave? In a matter of days, the outside world would become barren of all life."

"While I see your concerns, murdering Kokoro is not the solution to this particular problem." Mamizou calmly responds with.

"Is that so?" Yukari responds with a coy smile as she leans forward and says to the tanuki "This incident started because the menreiki is not emotionally stable. Under your guidance, its obvious that she'll never achieve stability, so do you honestly believe that keeping her alive is for the best when she presents such a danger to both Gensokyo AND the outside world?"

"No, you're right, my actions have likely done more harm than good in regards to Kokoro's development. But that doesn't mean that I plan on giving up on her. There is another pair of people who could help Kokoro out immensely, and I plan to enlist their help right away. This type of incident will not happen again, so I would kindly appreciate it if you never set your sights on her again." Mamizou makes her stance against Yukari rather clear, but the gap Youkai can only smile at everything she says.

"And if it comes down to the menreiki threatening the Great Hakurei Border again? What are you exactly going to do to stop me from performing what needs to be done?" Yukari taunts the tanuki, a mistake that she shouldn't have made towards such a docile foe.

Calmly glaring at the gap Youkai, Mamizou says to her "Oh, I have an army of Youkai that will be perfectly willing to fight you if need be. Of course, I'd rather our confrontation come later than sooner."

Yukari grins as she sits upright and looks down at the tanuki, saying in a somewhat intrigued tone of voice "Oh? You wish to fight me someday? May I ask exactly why you'd wish such a thing?"

"For hundreds of years now you've let Gensokyo stagnate in its development. But now change is happening to break that stagnation, from the way the Youkai behave to how the humans change the very way the land is perceived. But you don't want change to happen, do you? You are perfectly content with everything being the way it was before day in and day out. But change is happening, and one day the land of Gensokyo is not going to require the presence of a manipulative gap Youkai again."

"You're right, it will be in the perfectly capable hands of a tanuki and her army of controlled Youkai, yes?" Yukari responds with a somewhat gentle tone of sarcasm, which actually makes Mamizou flinch a bit in turn.

The gap Youkai giggles, and proceeds to say to Mamizou "I must admit, you are a very intriguing person, Mamizou Futatsuiwa, so allow me to let you in on a little secret. Right now you shouldn't be focusing all of your efforts into possibly defeating me."

"What do you mean by that, exactly?" Mamizou was intrigued by Yukari's words, and stood still to listen to what she had to say.

"An undetermined amount of time from now, two beings shall descend upon Gensokyo…They will fight the strongest we have to offer and win. One shall be kindly, the other shall ultimately be destructive and insane in nature. The second one is a major threat to all of Gensokyo, and perhaps the grander universe itself…But if you don't manage to do anything about him when the time comes, rest assured that I will definitely be able to stop him." Yukari's words leave Mamizou feeling suspicious, and the tanuki slants her eyebrows in turn.

"You mean you're going to gap another two humans into Gensokyo, just like you did all those other destructive troublemakers from the outside world, and then expect us to clean up after your mess." Mamizou firmly accuses Yukari.

The gap Youkai kindly shakes her head and says with honesty "Not at all. These two will not be brought here via my hand…Look to the sky in due time, and you shall watch them descend onto our lands. For now though, Mamizou, I must go and repair the Great Hakurei Border. We shall meet again someday."

With those kindly words of departure, Yukari opens up a gap below her shikigami Chen to send her back to her personal realm while also creating a gap that allows her to go that realm herself. Mamizou is left alone in the forest to ponder the mysterious words said by the gap Youkai, but leaves them in the back of her mind for the time being as a more pressing matter comes to her attention. Turning around, the tanuki departs this serene forest to accomplish one final task…

_Next Time: A Surprise Epilogue!_ _(…Except for you people on TvTropes, because you'll have known about this when I posted the chapter link)_


	16. Epilogue

**Epilogue: Mend the Emotional**

Here is what happened to the other cast members after the incident came to a close.

**Keine and Rinnosuke:**

The two crazy love birds eventually woke up lying down in a random field of grass far-off from all other human contact. An immediate look into each other's eyes brought a large amount of confusion and fluster to their expressions, though its not because they were next to each other…But they were wrapped underneath a blanket…And they were both naked…

Needless to say, neither one of them recognized how they got into this particular situation, possibly because their minds were too weak to recall what happened while they were controlled by Kokoro's emotions…And the less said about Rinnosuke's poor manhood after Keine and him were both down babbling in confusion, the better.

**The Moriya Shrine:**

After Sanae awoke after being knocked unconscious offscreen by Kasen, she found herself back to normal and spent the new couple of hours following Kanako around nonstop and apologizing deeply for all the things she said and did. The goddess, after finally convincing the shrine maiden to stop, forgave Sanae completely and let the matter slide under the rug…

Except in regards to Suwako, who Kanako berated for not realizing that everything was wrong and doing something about it besides joining in. The frog goddess responded slyly by saying that she knew something was up the entire time and just went along with it because she thought it was hilarious. Kanako was not amused, and the two of them had to have a Spell Card duel later in order to resolve this matter.

**Mokou and Kaguya:**

After waking up from her bout of laziness, Mokou was met by an attack from Kaguya, which blew her up and forced the Hourai Elixir to take effect. Mokou, understandably pissed off, engaged her mortal enemy in an epic duel the likes of which they never had before…

Well, at the very least that's what Kaguya told Eirin once she returned to the House of Eternity later that night. As far as the rest of the Eientei group goes, Eirin had actually come up with a type of medicine that protected everyone from Kokoro's disease…Reisen in particular is just waiting to know what type of side effects would come about from the medicine later.

**Suika Ibuki:**

?

**Cirno:**

After somehow realizing that she managed to achieve a 4 to 0 Butt Monkey to overall dialogue ratio during this entire story, Cirno took pre-emptive measures in ensuring that she'd never get this type of treatment in another one of Mewmaster93's stories and with the help of Shiki Cirno somehow managed to learn how the law works and managed to file a restraining order against the author…

Which ends up completely backfiring on her when she cryo freezes the document for safe keeping and ends up rendering it null and void by letting it and go and having it shatter only one hour after receiving it. The author is now bidding his time to get back at Cirno for trying to defy the laws of fiction.

**Yuuka Kazami:**

Yuuka went back to her Garden of the Sun and was merely happy to fulfill her quota for cameo appearances in a Touhou fic for the month. She also decided to put her flowers on full alert for the appearance of anymore Celestials.

**Shiki and Komachi:**

With Komachi's serious attitude out of the way, Shiki wasted no time in forcing the Shinigami back to work for her snide comments. Ironically, out of all the people in Gensokyo, the Yama was the only one who would never come to find out just who changed her Shinigami's emotions…

**Koishi Komeiji:**

Koishi wanders about her merry way like she always has and likely always will, but something has changed in her after encountering the menreiki…For a single moment, Koishi pauses and actually remembers a little bit about Kokoro, and finds herself unable to explain just what this wet sensation is that is crawling down her right cheek…

**The Underground Faction:**

Satori would like to let you know that she is perfectly fine to have not been included in this fic, thank you very much.

**Yukari Yakumo: **

Spent the next couple of weeks repairing the Great Hakurei Border, which required a great deal of insistence on Ran's part in order to convince her to get the job done. All the while, Yukari thinks about the future, and one particular moment she thinks about is a line spoken to her angrily by one of the two she mentioned to Mamizou _"For every single human you've brought to die in Gensokyo, I am their vengeance given flesh!"_ These very words cause her to smile in a rather anticipating manner…

**The Myouren Youkai and the Taoists:**

They are now all perfectly back to normal, though Futo is forced to help repair the Myouren Temple alongside the other Buddhism followers since her flames caused the most damage. As it turns out, Murasa's nostalgic behavior was caused by Kokoro's disease, which also goes a long way to explain why it took Shou and Nazrin so long to return to the temple after Byakuren sent them out…And nobody cares what happened to Kogasa, since she was never brought up before this point in the story.

**Motherfucking Aya:**

Nobody ever comes to realize that if it wasn't for this fucking Tengu giving Tenshi a copy of her newspaper, that this incident never would have happened in the first place!

**The Scarlet Devil Mansion Crew:**

Remilia sits on her throne after everything has started going back to normal with Sakuya by her side. With her right arm slanted against the throne, the vampire had a rather strange smile on her face despite everything that has happened, which the maid comments on with a curious "Mistress, what is on your mind?"

Remilia, charismatic as always, says to Sakuya with a tilt of her head "Fate has a rather strange way of working, doesn't it? The appearance of that menreiki could have been disastrous for us, but instead an opportunity has arisen thanks to it."

"How so, mistress?" Sakuya asks.

"According to Patchouli, the emotional disease managed to make Flandre emotionally stable amongst three of her copies for quite a while…Imagine now, if you would, if the menreiki could help make the real Flandre like that. She would be able to leave the basement safely and join us in our activities. Sakuya!" With a glance towards her maid, Remilia watches as she gently bows and says "Yes, mistress Remilia?"

"Once everything has fully settled down around here, I would like you to try and corral the menreiki into coming back here so she can help out with Flandre." Sakuya responds dutifully in turn with "That I will do, mistress."

As Remilia glances forward again, she says in a curious tone "Come to think about it, what is Patchouli up to right now?"

Inside the Scarlet Devil Library, Patchouli be seen huddle between four giant columns of books, her asthma causing her to cough wildly as she flips through the pages of a dark black book in front of her, saying in an almost frightening tone of voice "I won't let that Celestial get away with this indignity…I will kill her, I will kill her, I will kill her damn it!"

Patchouli's words echo through the inner depths of the library…

**Wakasugihime:**

The mermaid happens upon a crack in the fourth wall left behind by Suika's earlier efforts. The unfortunate dear happens to observe the author's thoughts on her, and after coiling herself up in a ball in the Misty Lake she dreads the very thought of herself appearing in a post-DDC fanfic.

**The Religious Leaders and Mamizou…And Marisa:**

Not long after Kokoro has resolved the incident, Miko has managed to help pull Reimu, Marisa and Byakuren out of the rubble of the house they were tossed into. While Byakuren and Miko sit at the edge of the rubble, the Taoist leader pondering something with her shaku resting underneath her chin. Reimu, dusting off her arms and sleeves, hears the sound of clambering humans and says in a merry tone of voice "Alright, the incident is over! And it was all thanks to me!"

Marisa, always one to be honest to her friend, says with a nervous chuckle "But Reimu, it was Miko who managed to convince Kokoro to turn against Tenshi, not you."

Reimu, tuning most of what Marisa said out of her head, says in a humored tone of voice "Oh please, if it wasn't for my bluntness in regards to what a total bitch Tenshi is, Kokoro wouldn't have done anything. Now come on, lets tell the villagers just who their hero is!"

So wrapped up in a victory that mostly wasn't hers, Reimu rushes into the Human Village declaring herself the savior, all the while Marisa sighs and says in a whisper "Well, if this will at least stop her from getting drunk again…Even so, perhaps I should go hide all the sake at her shrine before she heads back." After saying this, the ordinary magician chases after Reimu before she makes too much of an idiot of herself.

Byakuren smiles at the relationship between the two humans, but then turns her head towards Miko and says in an optimistic tone of voice "Well, all's well that ends well, right? I'm actually sort of glad we teamed up again, we really ended up doing the right thing by helping Kokoro out like this."

The Taoist Leader, slanted over as she glares blankly in deep thought, taps her shaku twice against her chin and says "Something still doesn't add up here Byakuren…Why did one of Kokoro's masks shatter?"

"Perhaps I can be of assistance in answering that." A familiar voice calls out to the two religious leaders, and Miko pokes her head up too look on ahead as Mamizou walks towards them in her human guise.

It takes a moment, but Miko and Byakuren recognize the tanuki. Miko in particular says "Well, its about time you make your presence known, Mamizou. I must say, the human appearance really suits you."

Nodding her head gracefully, Mamizou says to Miko "Thank you for the compliment, Crown Prince. Now then, I believe you have a question that requires answering, yes?"

Byakuren waves her right hand towards the tanuki and says to her "Do you know what happened to Kokoro's fox mask?"

"Yes I do, actually. It is a rather simple explanation, actually." Mamizou folds her arms in front of her chest and says to the two curious religious leaders "You see, when Kokoro experiences an emotion so intensely that the emotional energy of her masks is unable to suppress them, the mask shatters and is rendered unneeded. In essence, Kokoro can experience anger and seriousness all on her own, she doesn't need to have a mask beside her in order to let anyone know that now."

"Wait, two different emotions? But only one mask broken." Miko is swift to point out.

"That's what it may have looked like from your point of view, but do you honestly believe that the emotional energy built up from one mask would have been enough to knock all four of you unconscious when it cracked apart?" Mamizou's words make the Taoist prince pause and think, realizing after only a few seconds that the tanuki was correct in her assessment.

"But anyways, I didn't come here simply to answer any lingering questions you may have. I wish to ask you both a favor, and it is urgent that you listen." Mamizou's honest plight grabs the attention of both Byakuren and Miko, who sit patiently and waited to hear the tanuki out.

Mamizou starts to walks around to end up behind the two leaders, her glance focusing upon Byakuren as she says to her "First off Byakuren, I am going to have to announce my departure from the Myouren Temple for the time being."

"Hmm, can't say that I am surprised by that." Byakuren notes.

After Mamizou positions herself between the two religious leaders from behind, she places her left hand down on Miko's left shoulder and her right hand down on Byakuren's right shoulder and says to them "I am entrusting you with a very important endeavor. As you saw, Kokoro is still somewhat emotionally unstable, and though I tried to help her out I lack all the things necessary for the development of such a young Youkai. As such, I would like for you two to help her out. In a way, you'd become like a mother and father to her, and help her learn how to stabilize her emotions and cast aside the remainder of her masks."

"…Do you really think we are the right people to handle such a task?" Byakuren says in a concerned tone of voice as she glances back at the tanuki.

Mamizou nods her head and smiles, saying with a glance back and forth to the two religious figures "If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't have come to you in the first place. I trust you both to help Kokoro out, though for the moment I would suggest not trying to find her. She needs a little time to recover from this whole ordeal."

Miko smiles and says to Mamizou "Alright, we accept this task, oh wise tanuki."

Mamizou retracts her arms from the two leaders' bodies and says in a delighted voice "Excellent, I knew you would accept."

Folding her arms into her sleeves, Mamizou says nonchalantly "Now if you'll excuse me, I do believe I should check up on my new friend Kosuzu while I'm in the neighborhood, since she was likely affected by this incident."

The tanuki departs from the scene with mysterious grace while the two religious look on. Miko smiles and says to Byakuren "Heh, that tanuki is a very interesting person. But no matter how mysterious she is, so long as I can tell that she wishes the best for us I know to trust in what she has to say."

"So, what shall we do about Kokoro?" Byakuren asks as she turns her head to face the Taoist leader.

Smiling, Miko says to Byakuren "Well we should try to ease her into the whole process. Maybe try a couple of dinners together with her before doing anything truly serious…I must admit, there has to be an issue of trust she has with us if it took so much effort to sway her away from Tenshi's grasp. As much as I hate to admit it, my plan would have been a complete failure if it wasn't for Reimu's bluntness and Marisa's straightforward behavior, which is why I'm fine with Reimu taking credit for solving this incident. I do have to wonder though, how will we divide up the roles…?"

Byakuren smiles and stands up off the ground, beginning to walk off as she happily says with a shrug of her shoulders "Well, let me know when you come up with an answer, husband."

The Buddhist leader walks away while Miko mumbles to herself "Yeah, I'll definitely make sure to get around to that." Oblivious of what exactly Byakuren said to her for just a few seconds before her eyes widen and she quickly rises to her feet, looking at the Buddhist in surprising bewilderment as she says to her "Hey wait a second, did you actually just crack a joke at me?"

**Tenshi and Kokoro…:**

A week has passed since the incident came to an end, and up in Bhava-agra Tenshi can be seen sitting with legs crossed in the middle of a bundle of peach trees with a depressed droop in her eyes and a rather lifeless aura around her body as she slowly chomps down on a peach.

Lying on the ground behind her is Suika, the oni downing sake from her gourd merrily with a drunken blush on her face, the constant gobbling of sake pissing off Tenshi immensely as she turns to oni and exclaims to her "Damn it all, will you just leave me alone already?!"

Suika pulls her gourd away and says in a laid back tone of voice "I left you alone once before and you ended up causing a lot of trouble in Gensokyo. Until I can be absolutely certain that you won't go and do something like this again, I'm going to keep an eye on you 24/7."

Tenshi turns her head away from Suika and says with a flustered blush on her face as she closes her eyelids "Well you don't have to worry about that ever happening. To hell with Gensokyo and all its bullshit! I don't want to have anything to do them ever again, and I'm perfectly fine with just sitting up here bored if that's what it takes to prevent me from ever returning there again!"

After Tenshi makes her position known, Suika places the gourd on the ground and says in a coy tone as she leans her left arm against the ground "You know, you aren't as good of a liar as you were before going down this time Tenshi. Maybe this trip actually did change you somewhat."

Tenshi opens her eyelids and scowls, saying quietly to Suika "Like any of that matters now…"

Drowning in her own sadness, the Celestial almost doesn't hear the sound of footsteps approaching her from up ahead. Creaking her eyelids open, Tenshi is utterly shocked to see Kokoro heading her way. The oni, not usually one to be taken aback by most things, actually widens her eyes and thinks to herself _"Well now, what do we have here?"_

"…What are you doing here?" Tenshi asks in an almost stoic tone of voice.

Kokoro stops a few feet away from the Celestial's body, looking down upon her with the Monkey mask floating beside her face as she says in a stoic voice "I need to talk to you, Tenshi."

"K-Kokoro, I really don't-" Tenshi tries to come up with a proper sentence, but is interrupted midway by Kokoro saying to her "No, you don't get to say anything yet. Let me say my peace first."

The Celestial goes silent and decides to hear the menreiki out, though her overall demeanor doesn't change as she sits on the ground. "Tenshi, I have spent the last week thinking about everything that happened during that incident, how you lied to me, how you used me for your own ends, and how I felt when I learned the truth about you…But as I thought about it more and more, I came to realize something…Through all of those lies, there really were genuine moments of kindness you showed me."

Kokoro reaches into her shirt and pulls out both halves of Tenshi's Last Word, which have shriveled up somewhat but are otherwise in a good enough condition to be repaired. The Celestial is shocked to see the Last Word in the Youkai's palm, but doesn't say anything as Kokoro goes on to mention "And as I continued to think about your acts of kindness, it made me feel a hint of guilt for fighting you like I did…"

Kokoro starts to kneel down in front of Tenshi, taking the Last Word halves and gently lifting up the Celestial's right hand to put the card back into there, wrapping her left hand on top of Tenshi's palm as she looks straight into her eyes and asks her "Tenshi…I can't take back what I said to you during our battle, but I don't think it would be right if I just let things end like that between us. If you could, would you be able to not lie anymore? I want to believe with all of my heart that you are capable of being kind, but I need to know if you are capable of showing honesty too."

Tenshi is about ready to whip out an answer right then and there, but stops herself and sinks her head off to the right as she says in a somber tone "…Kokoro, I don't believe it is possible for me to stop lying. It is just a part of who I am, its defined my personality for far too long now that I don't believe that I'll be able to just stop with a snap of my fingers."

However, these words bring a partial smile to Kokoro's face, as she says to the Celestial "But Tenshi, you are being honest with me right now. That's a start. If for no one else, could you at least try to stop lying for me? Don't you want to be a good influence for someone you see as a younger sister?"

Kokoro's inquiry made Tenshi turn to face the Youkai and glare at her with a blank pause in her eyes. After a few seconds of awkward silence, the Celestial's eyes began to well up with tears as she thrusts her arms towards Kokoro and says in a bawling tone "Oh Kokoro you optimistic little goofball!" as she proceeds to wrap her arms around the Youkai's youthful body.

Crying the likes of which she never had before, Tenshi accepts Kokoro's warm embrace and says to her amidst her happy tears "I will do it for you Kokoro…I-I'm so sorry for everything I did to you, you don't even know how much this affected me over the last week!"

"I think I can take a guess…" Kokoro says in a somewhat mature tone of stoicism, before proceeding to say "Also, can you try not to cause another wide scale incident?"

Tenshi, after pulling herself back and sniffling through her tears, stares at Kokoro with her hands attached to her shoulders and says "Sure…But would it be ok if I did a harmless prank every now and then?"

"Tenshi…" Kokoro says in a prolonged tone of partial disappointment.

The Celestial laughs and says "Ok fine, I won't try and cause any trouble. But still, I'm glad everything resolved peacefully…"

"Boy I'll say!" Suika exclaims as she suddenly stands between both Youkai and Celestial and wraps her mighty arms around both of their backsides and says in a festive tone of voice "Now lets celebrate by getting drunk!"

Tenshi, glaring at the oni in a highly disapproving manner, says in a disbelieving tone of voice "Suika! You can't serve sake to Kokoro, she's like…Ummm…"

Turning to face the Youkai and looking over her body measurements real quick, the Celestial says in a confused tone of voice "Ummm…How old would you say you are Kokoro? 10? Maybe 12?"

Shaking her head before the menreiki can open her mouth to answer, Tenshi looks back at Suika with the earlier expression and exclaims "The point is that she's too young to be able to tolerate sake!"

Suika pauses in place and blinks for a couple seconds before tumbling onto her backside and breaking into jolly laughter, saying in between her laughs "Hahaha! Oh wow…You are already starting to act just like a concerned older sister would! This is hilarious!"

Tenshi pouts at the oni and blushes, saying in a flustered tone of voice "Oh just get out of here already Suika!"

Kokoro laughs at the interactions between Suika and Tenshi, but as the Celestial focuses her eyes back on her she quickly stands up and says in an inviting tone with a swing of her right arm "Come on Kokoro, let me show you around Bhava-agra."

The menreiki Youkai stands up and floats behind Tenshi as the Celestial merrily runs through the peach tree garden, while Suika lays back on her side and resumes drinking her sake with a smile on her face.

_Thus the incident of the Scarlet Masquerade has come to a close, and unlike the last incident Tenshi caused this one shall prove to be beneficial for both herself and the menreiki in the long run. In time the Celestial may become a much better person that can actually interact with the other residents of Gensokyo peacefully, but for now she is content with just Kokoro…But this incident has sparked a lot of interesting questions. How will Byakuren and Miko handle the young Kokoro? When and how will Remilia get here hands on the menreiki for herself? Will Cirno ever get a line of dialogue in one of Mewmaster93's fics? Why weren't Yuyuko and Youmu even mentioned in this story until now? What shall Mamizou do now? And who exactly are the two mysterious visitors that Yukari mentioned to Mamizou? In due time, perhaps these shall all be answered…_

**Scarlet Masquerade…THE END!**

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

And that my friends is the end of my very first Touhou fic. In all honesty, the idea for this story was just created entirely on a whim and expanded into something bigger very quickly. Can't say that I managed this alone though. I had plenty of support from a few select people, and surprisingly got a decent number of followers and reviews compared to all my other work. Needless to say, that made it a lot easier to keep a consistent schedule with this story, but in turn the techniques I picked up eventually helped the other story along as well.

So what happens from here on out? Well, I don't have any big stories worked up for Touhou quite yet. The ideas are in the head, as evidenced by the dozen or so Sequel Hooks in this Epilogue, but I need some time to work out just when I want to get into it. Still got my other story, after all. For the time being though, I'll probably come up with a few one-shot stories that will have little to do with the Sequel Hooks to pass the time.

Thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful day.


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